ONS takes bigger glasses and stronger wines into consideration

The Office of National Statistics (ONS) has updated its methods for calculating wine consumption in drinking surveys to reflect the increase in strength of the average bottle of wine as well as the size of the average wine glass.

‘Recent years have seen an increase in the availability of stronger wines, especially those from the New World, while wine glasses larger than the traditional 125ml are increasingly popular in licensed premises,’ said the ONS in a statement.

As a result, from now on a small glass of wine (125ml) will count as 1.5 units, a medium glass (175ml) as two units and a large glass (250ml) as three units. Where the glass size is unspecified, the unit value will now be counted as two units rather than one, based on an average glass of wine size of 170ml at 12.5% alcohol.

In the UK, one unit of alcohol is defined as 10ml alcohol by volume, or eight grams by weight, of pure alcohol.