How many grapes are in a bottle of wine?

How many bottles do you get from a vine? How many bunches of grapes are in a bottle of wine?

There are many variables that go into winemaking, but to win the bar room bet remember:

Approx 1kg of grapes = 1* 750ml bottle of wine.

So 1000kg (1ton) = 1000 bottles (approx 84 dozen)

That is the basis.

Bush Vine Grenache with bunches growing from suckers. Back breaking work to pick.

Different vines have different yields and bunch sizes and some have different extraction rates (amount of liquid pressed out), but as a rule of thumb it’s a good start.

Now, knowing how many bottles from a Vine is the next step, and unfortunately that is only answered by: it depends.

Lower yielding (sometimes old) vines with minimal water may only produce 1.5kg per Vine. On the other hand High yielding vines might even offer up 20kg of grapes.

Zinfandel with big berries and bunches

Which is better? Well getting that balance of flavours, health, consistent ripening and yields is the balance that viticulturists are employed to optimise, depending on the type of wines the winemaker is wanting to make.

It is an interesting area of winemaking and one that has been the basis for the general quantum leap in quality across the board for Australian wines in the past 20 years.

So, answering the question: how many bottles per Vine is a little like asking how many litres of milk per paddock of cows.

View from the picking bin on the back of a tractor.

To win the bet, you can assume a healthy quality Australian Shiraz Vine in good soil, in a good climate, looked after and pruned well, with sufficient water, will be around 5 kilos.

Assuming all goes well at vintage (weather, pests, birds, disease, pickers, transport and winemakers) lets call it at around 5 bottles on average.