Many of us have heard someone talk about the “legs” of a wine, but what does that actually mean? Wine legs (sometimes called “wine tears”) often spark curiosity at wine tastings, and understanding what they do – and don’t – tell us is an important step in learning about and appreciating wine.
Spoiler: Wine legs have nothing to do with wine quality.
What Are Wine Legs?
Do you have a glass of wine handy? Swirl your glass and watch what happens to the wine as it falls back down inside the glass. The little streaks of liquid that form around the inside of the glass and flow back down into the bowl are called wine legs, or wine tears.
How Wine Legs Form
Wine legs are a result of surface tension differences between the water and the alcohol in the wine – which are the two biggest components of wine. (Did you know that wine is about 85% water?)
As we swirl a wine, the alcohol in the wine naturally evaporates faster than the water. This difference changes the composition of the wine at the edge of the swirl, creating a “ridge” of slightly less alcoholic wine around the inside of the glass. That rim beads up into many “legs” as gravity pulls the wine back down along the inside curve of the glass. In physics, this phenomenon is called the Marangoni effect.
What Wine Legs Tell You
Wine legs offer us clues about (1) alcohol content, and (2) viscosity.
Wines with more pronounced legs typically have higher alcohol content. Those sharp, clear lines defining them indicate that the Marangoni effect is strong – meaning, there is a higher alcohol concentration at play. Less defined legs suggest the wine may have a relatively lower alcohol percentage.
Wider, slower-moving legs are a visual cue that a wine has significant body weight (viscosity). Higher sugar, glycerol, and/or alcohol percentages all boost the viscosity of wine, making it denser than water. This creates a fuller body that we experience on our palates when we taste the wine.
To see for yourself the differences alcohol and viscosity have on wine legs, we recommend pouring two half glasses of the same wine, diluting one with a splash of water, and then swirling to watch the difference in the legs. (Lab coats are optional for this experiment.)
What Wine Legs Don’t Tell You
Many people assume that wine legs are a sign of wine quality, but this is a myth. There is no correlation whatsoever between the shape, speed or quantity of wine legs and any objective measure of a wine’s quality or flavor.
Wine legs are simply fun-to-watch clues that relate to alcohol and viscosity – not taste or craftsmanship.
Factors Affecting Wine Legs
Alcohol by Volume (ABV):
Since the presence of alcohol in wine is the critical reason wine legs form, wines with higher alcohol by volume (ABV) will produce more defined legs than lower alcohol wines. This is why many red wines, which frequently have a higher alcohol concentration and an ABV over 14%, have thicker legs.
Temperature:
Like water, alcohol evaporates more quickly in warmer temperatures. A bottle that just came out of the refrigerator will not produce the same legs as a bottle of the same wine that has been sitting on the deck for an hour. The warmer a wine gets, the more defined its legs will be.
Glass Shape:
The shape of a wine glass also impacts the formation of legs. The slope and curvature of the glass influences the ability of surface tension to hold liquids in position. You may notice that your favorite Bonterra wine produces different legs when you serve it in a differently shaped glass.
Should You Focus on Wine Legs?
Humanity’s long history of discussing and studying wine legs suggests that they are a core part of proper wine assessment – but if you ask us, they’re really not that important!
We actually get a much more accurate and useful sense of a wine’s alcohol level and viscosity using our palates. The sensory input we get with our palates helps us distinguish not just a wine with more viscosity than another, but also what the wine tastes like! What flavors, aromas and textures does it have? Our palates can start to tease apart the important questions of what is contributing to the wine’s viscosity – is it residual sugar, alcohol, glycerol, or tannins? Is the alcohol balanced with the other components? What grape variety was this wine made from? Examining a wine’s legs can’t tell us any of this.
So while it’s critical to swirl a wine glass to release its aromatic components, and it’s fun to watch the formation of wine legs, don’t worry about analyzing the legs or commenting on them. You’ll get a lot more specific, useful information to comment on once you smell and taste the wine.
Focus on What Matters in Wine Tasting!
Wine legs are a truly fascinating phenomenon caused by the different surface tension properties of alcohol and water. They can give us wine drinkers early clues about a wine’s alcohol level and viscosity, but they don’t reveal anything about its quality – or the way the wine will taste. We suggest you enjoy them as a visual bonus, maybe share an IG story with the Bonterra wine community of a particularly memorable set of legs, and just have fun putting physics into action! If you’re looking to explore different wine options, consider buying wine online from organic wineries for a taste of sustainability. And for those who want to dive deeper into the world of wine, joining a wine club can offer you access to exclusive selections as well!
