These are the wines to drink if you want to lose weight

IF YOU’VE pledged to lose those extra kilos in the new year do you have to forgo a nightly glass of wine? Not necessarily.

THE HOLIDAYS are behind us and so too is the season of indulgence.

But if you’ve pledged to lose those extra kilos in the new year do you have to forgo a nightly glass of wine? Some wines have as little as 90 calories per glass, while others can be up to 300.

Here are four categories of wine that’ll go easy on your waistline:

CHAMPAGNE AND SPARKLING WINES

Generic photo of glasses of champagne

At 90-125 calories per glass, sparkling wines have fewer calories than most other types of wine. The serving size, typically poured in a Champagne flute, which is also smaller than still wines and the bubbles cause consumers to sip it more slowly. (Hey, every little bit helps.) Opt for dry sparklers which don’t have much, or any, residual sugar, labelled “Brut,” “Extra Brut,” or “Brut Nature.”

LIGHT WHITE WINE

Lower calorie whites come from cool climate wine regions such as those in France, Germany and Italy. Here, grapes don’t achieve the level of ripeness they do in the warmer wine regions of the US, South America and Australia. Increased ripeness equals more grape sugars and, therefore, more calories. Wines such as pinot grigio, sauvignon blanc and riesling are great choices.

LIGHT RED WINE

25/04/2007 PIRATE: 09 Mar 2004 Glasses of red and white wine for tasting in a winery. PicVanessa/Hunter - industry qld generic

While white wines have fewer calories, some people just have to have their reds. If you fall into this category, opt for lighter style reds with lower alcohol and less sugar such as those made from the gamay, pinot noir or barbera grapes, which are kinder to your waistline than full-bodied wines like cabernet sauvignon.

DRY ROSÉ

15/10/2010 FOOD: Generic photo of wine glasses full of red and white wine. Pic. Supplied

These delicious wines, with their inviting pink colour, offer the lighter quality of white wines with the fruity appeal of reds, thanks to the few short hours the grape skins remain in contact with the juice. Look for dry style rosés like those from Provence which don’t have any sugar added like many white zinfandels and blush wines do.

Stephanie Miskew is a certified sommelier, wine educator and proprietor of The Wine Atelier, an online wine boutique in the US. She also runs the The Glamorous Gourmet, a website dedicated to wine and entertaining.

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Originally published as These are the wines to drink if you want to lose weight