The supermarket shelves are filling up with non alcoholic and alcohol free wines. They are a huge growth sector. However, there are still lots of people new to the sector or who just have questions. One of the most common i see is… “Can non alcoholic wine get you drunk?”
This isn’t a crazy question so let’s explore the answer…
Can non alcoholic wine get you drunk?
To get drunk on non alcoholic wine, you need to drink x96 5fl oz glasses of non alcoholic wine in less than 2 hrs.
This equated to 480fl oz of non alcoholic wine, 3.5 gallons of non alcoholic wine or about 19 bottles of non alcoholic wine in 2 hours.
To look at it another way, you will have to drink a 5fl oz glass of non alcoholic wine, every 75 seconds, for 2 hours, to get drunk.
It is not really possible to drink 480fl oz of non alcoholic wine in 2 hours, so it is not possible to get drunk on non alcoholic wine.
Can alcohol free wine get you drunk?
To get drunk on alcohol free wine, you need to drink x960 5fl oz glasses of alcohol free wine in less than 2 hrs.
This equated to 4800fl oz of alcohol free wine, 35 gallons of alcohol free wine or about 190 bottle of alcohol free wine in 2hours.
To look at it another way, you will have to drink a 5fl oz glass of alcohol free wine every 7.5 seconds, for 2 hours, to get drunk.
It is impossible to drink this amount of fluid in 2 hours so it is impossible to get drunk on alcohol free wine
How many alcoholic wines to get drunk?
To figure out if you can get drunk on non alcoholic wine, you need to know how many alcoholic wines it would take to get drunk.
What is a standard wine?
Wine comes in lots of different strengths, grapes and colours. There is no point in me saying “standard wine” and you imagining some 15% Shiraz when i mean a 10% Chardonnay.
Luckily for us, the USDA have devised a list of “standard” alcoholic drinks. Each one contains the exact same amount of alcohol – 14g of alcohol (0.6 ounces).
Below is a list of the standard drinks, volumes and ABV that all give 14g of alcohol.
| Drink and volume | Alcohol content |
| 12fl oz Beer | 5% |
| 5fl oz Wine | 12% |
| 1.5fl oz Spirit | 40% |
So as you can see, a standard wine is a 5fl oz glass and 12% alcohol by volume.
What is the legal definition of “drunk”?
Now we know what a standard wine is, we need to know how to scientifically judge what “drunk” is under the law. There must be a better way than just waiting until you slur your words.
A blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of 0.08% is classed as legally intoxicated in the US.
So lastly, we now need to see how many standard drinks would get your BAC to 0.08%.
How many standard glasses of wine to get drunk?
How many alcoholic wines does the average adult need to drink to get to a BAC of 0.08% and drunk under the law?
The CDC tells us that the average 160lb adult male will need to drink 4 standard drinks, in this case wine, to get to a BAC of 0.08%.
The answer is therefore, it would take 4 standard wines to get drunk. These need to be drank over 1-2 hours however, as your liver will start breaking down the alcohol in your blood as soon as it encounters it.
How many non alcoholic wines equals one wine?
The next step in working out if you can get drunk on non alcoholic wine is to see how many non alcoholic wines equals one alcoholic wine.
I have dedicated a full article to it here
A non alcoholic wine has 0.5% ABV and an alcoholic wine has 12% alcohol by volume.
Therefore, you would need to drink 24 non alcoholic wines of the same volume to equal one alcoholic wine of the same volume. The math is 12/0.5 = 24.
How many alcohol free wines equals one wine?
The math is just as easy for alcohol free wines.
An alcohol free wine will have less than 0.05% ABV compared to 0.5% for a non alcoholic wine so to keep things easy, let’s us the 0.05% number.
You would need to drink 240 alcohol free wines of the same volume to equal one alcoholic wine of the same volume (in terms of alcohol).
How many non alcoholic wines to get drunk?
To get drunk on non alcoholic wine you have to drink x24 the amount of standard alcohol wine.
4 standard wines is enough to get your BAC to 0.08%, so it would take 96 non alcoholic wines to get drunk.
Again, this has to be over a relatively short time period.
How many alcohol free wines to get drunk?
If it takes 96 non alcoholic wines to get drunk then the crazy amount of alcohol free wines it would take is 960 over 1-2 hours.
Can non alcoholic wine get you drunk?
You need to drink 96 5fl oz glasses non alcoholic wine over 1-2 hours to get drunk. If you set out to try and do this, some people might just be able to but in general, at normal drinking levels or above, it is not possible to get drunk on non alcoholic wine.
Can alcohol free wine get you drunk?
You need to drink 960 5fl oz glasses of alcohol free wine over 1-2 hours to get drunk. It is not physically possible to drink this amount of liquid, therefore it is impossible to get drunk on alcohol free wine.
