Still wine is any wine that has no carbonation or bubbles. It’s the most common type of wine in the world, covering everything from a glass of Cabernet Sauvignon to a crisp Sauvignon Blanc to a pale Provençal rosé. If you’ve ever drunk wine that wasn’t fizzy, you’ve had still wine.
The term exists mainly to distinguish these wines from sparkling varieties like Champagne, Prosecco, and Cava. While sparkling wines are bottled under roughly 6 to 7 atmospheres of pressure (similar to a car tire), still wines sit at normal atmospheric pressure with virtually no dissolved carbon dioxide.
How Still Wine Is Made
All wine produces carbon dioxide during fermentation. As yeast converts grape sugar into alcohol, CO2 is a natural byproduct. The difference between still and sparkling wine comes down to what happens with that gas. In sparkling wine production, the CO2 is deliberately trapped inside the bottle or tank so it dissolves into the liquid and creates bubbles when you pour it. In still winemaking, the CO2 is simply allowed to escape into the air.
Most of the gas leaves on its own during and after fermentation, but winemakers sometimes take extra steps to remove any lingering carbonation. Common techniques include vigorous stirring with a degassing wand, using a vacuum pump to pull dissolved gas out of the liquid, or simply letting the wine rest at a slightly warmer temperature so the CO2 naturally diffuses over time. U.S. regulations set a hard limit: still wine can contain no more than 0.392 grams of CO2 per 100 milliliters. Anything above that, and it’s no longer classified as still.
The Main Categories
Still wine breaks down into three broad families based on color, and the color comes entirely from how the grape skins are handled during production.
- Red wine is made by fermenting dark-skinned grapes with their skins left in contact with the juice, which extracts color, tannins, and deeper flavors. The five most widely planted red varieties are Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Pinot Noir, Syrah (also called Shiraz), and Zinfandel.
- White wine is typically made from green or yellow-skinned grapes, though it can also be made from dark grapes if the skins are removed before fermentation. Styles range from lean, citrusy Sauvignon Blancs to rich, oak-aged Chardonnays.
- Rosé gets its pink hue from brief contact with dark grape skins, usually just a few hours. Provence in southern France and La Rioja in Spain are two of the most famous rosé-producing regions.
Within each color category, wines also vary by sweetness. Dry wines have little to no residual sugar left after fermentation. Sweet wines retain more sugar, either because fermentation was stopped early or because the grapes were harvested with extremely high sugar levels. The vast majority of still wines sold worldwide are dry or off-dry.
Alcohol and Calories
Most still wines fall between about 11% and 15% alcohol by volume. Lighter whites and rosés tend to sit at the lower end of that range, while full-bodied reds like Zinfandel or Australian Shiraz can push toward the higher end. Climate plays a big role: grapes grown in warmer regions develop more sugar, which converts to more alcohol.
Calorie counts track closely with alcohol content, since alcohol itself is calorie-dense. A 100-milliliter pour (a little under 3.5 ounces) of dry white wine at 11.5% alcohol contains roughly 75 calories. The same pour of dry rosé at 12.5% runs closer to 85 calories. A standard restaurant glass is about 150 milliliters, so you can scale up accordingly. Sweeter wines carry additional calories from their residual sugar.
Serving Temperature Matters
One of the easiest ways to improve a glass of still wine is to serve it at the right temperature. Most people drink reds too warm and whites too cold, which mutes flavor in both cases.
Red wines taste best slightly below room temperature, between 60 and 68°F (15 to 20°C). If you’ve been storing a bottle on the counter in a warm kitchen, 15 minutes in the fridge before opening can make a noticeable difference. White wines and rosés should be cool but not ice-cold, around 44 to 55°F (7 to 12°C). Pulling a bottle from the fridge 10 minutes before serving lets it warm just enough to release its aromas.
Why Glass Shape Changes the Experience
Still wines are typically served in wider-bowled glasses rather than the narrow flutes used for sparkling wine, and there’s a practical reason for this. A wider bowl gives the wine more surface area, which lets aromatic compounds evaporate and reach your nose as you sip. Research published in the journal Chemical Senses found that subjects rated the same wine’s aroma differently depending on the glass shape, with tulip-shaped and bulbous glasses producing distinct impressions of the same liquid.
You don’t need a cabinet full of specialty stemware to enjoy still wine, but choosing a glass with some width to the bowl and a slight taper at the rim will concentrate aromas better than a straight-sided tumbler. Red wines generally benefit from a larger bowl than whites, since their heavier, more complex aromas need more room to open up.
Still Wine vs. Sparkling Wine
Beyond the obvious difference in bubbles, still and sparkling wines diverge in a few less visible ways. Sparkling wines undergo a second fermentation specifically designed to carbonate them, and this process tends to increase acidity. A finished sparkling wine often has noticeably higher total acidity than a comparable still wine, which is why Champagne and Cava can taste so sharp and refreshing even when they contain a fair amount of residual sugar.
The pressure inside a bottle of sparkling wine also changes how it interacts with your palate. Those dissolved CO2 molecules create a tingling, almost astringent sensation on your tongue that still wine simply doesn’t have. This is why the same grape variety can produce wines that taste dramatically different depending on whether the final product is still or sparkling. A still Chardonnay and a Blanc de Blancs Champagne, both made from 100% Chardonnay, deliver entirely different drinking experiences.