Mid-infrared spectroscopy combined with chemometrics was used to determine total sugar content in Chinese rice wine. A total of 30 samples were collected. Calibration models were developed in the range of 1000cm-1 to 1500cm-1 and 2500 cm-1 to 3000cm-1 to exclude the influence of water absorption. Stepwise multiple regression (SMLR), principal component regression (PCR) and partial least squares regression (PLSR) were used to develop the models in TQ analyst software. And derivative pretreatment method was used to test the impact of accuracy of the models established. The best model was obtained by PLSR with second-order derivative pretreatment. The correlation coefficient of cross validation (rcv) was 0.984, RMSECV to 0.765g/L, RPD to 5.75. The result indicates that mid-infrared spectroscopy (MIR), combined with chemometric methods, can be used as a fast, simple and exact method to measure total sugar content in Chinese rice wine.