Flute Peg

Flute Peg

They usually occur in high alcohol wines and you'll see the link between alcohol and wine legs shortly. Some people say you can pick wine quality by the legs. This is just not true.

The legs occur due to the Marangoni effect. It comes from the fact that alcohol has a lower surface tension than water. Wine is mostly a mix of water and alcohol plus a few other parts such as sugars, tannins etc. As you swirl your wine around the glass and leave some on the side it starts to evaporate. Alcohol evaporates faster than water due to its lower boiling point and higher vapour pressure. The changed alcohol to water mix now has different surface tension areas. The wine forms droplets in the areas of least / most resistance which fall back down the glass under their own weight.

The quickest way to see this for yourself outside of a wine glass is by mixing alcohol and water on a flat surface. Put some water on a flat surface and then add a few drops of alcohol. Watch how the water races away from the alcohol drops. This is the lower surface tension of the alcohol interacting with the water.

Physicist James Thomson (Lord Kelvins brother) first identified this behaviour in 1855. The effect is named after an Italian physicist called Carlo Marangoni from the University of Pavia. Marangoni published his doctoral thesis on this phenomenon in 1865.

As you can see the legs don't have nothing to do with wine quality. They're nice to look at and they're a pretty good conversation starter. But as a wine quality indicator, I'm afraid they miss out altogether.

The Gurdies Winery is one of Australias premium cool climate wineries. The weekly newsletter gives you a snapshot of 'This day in wine history', more articles like this plus vineyard and winery news. Sign up by sending a blank email to whatson@thegurdieswinery.getresponse.com

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