"Low Carb" Wines

With as many as 60 million Americans avoiding carbohydrates while following "low-carb" diets such as Atkins and the South Beach diet, the question "What is the carb rating of a wine" is frequently asked. So much so, that a US regulatory decision in early 2004 permitted wine producers to market dry table wines as "low-carb" provided they disclose nutritional information on the label.

The regulation permit the use of "low-carb" on any wine containing fewer than 7 grams of carbohydrates in a 5-ounce glass. In fact, virtually all dry table wines, and most off-dry bottlings, can easily meet this requirement. Only the sweeter style of White Zinfandels and other mass-market "blush" wines, and of course sugary dessert wines, fail to meet the threshold.

Brown-Forman, the Louisville-based drinks conglomerate, raised the bar with its announcement of a pair of California wines named after their carbohydrate count: One.6 Chardonnay and One.9 Merlot. These carb levels, although well within the normal range for bone-dry table wines, appear to be significantly below many of the firm's competitors in the mass-market niche, where "threshold sweetness" in the range of 3 or 4 grams per serving is commonplace.

A number of wine producers now market their wines as "low-carb". If you would like to find out the carbohydrate level of your favorite wine, contact the winery directly and ask them for the analysis.

You can view a list of "low-carb" wines and drinks on the site.

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