A bit of a weird concept or saying and also known as 'tears' by some too. Wine legs are essentially the droplets of liquid which have started to move back to the main body of liquid in the glass, seen on the inner rim of the glass after you have swirled the wine in your glass.
If we want to get super technical, then feel free to look up the Gibbs-Marangoni effect which is the mass transfer along an interface between two fluids due to a gradient of the surface tension - studies dating back to the late 19th century are attributed.
Typically are there any rules or reasons why a wine may have more or less 'legs' ?
- it is true that higher alcohol wines collect larger amounts of droplets on the side of a glass, given the increased density vs a lower percentage of alcohol in the wine. The best example is in a fortified wine or a glass of spirit like whisky for example - the higher alcohol content will typically show greater 'wine legs'.
Does significant wine 'legs' or any level of wine 'legs' indicate you are drinking a good wine?
- ABSOLUTELY NOT. There is no such connection as far as I am concerned. Just because there is higher alcohol content in the glass does not mean it is going to be a great glass of wine or spirit. As far as I am aware, there has been no such research that has proven otherwise either, so this is very much a fable.
A short, sharp to the point detail on good old 'wine legs' .... feel free to comment/question or give us your views too.
Bye for now.
The Devon Wine Guy
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