Legs

[spilledcoffee]

What does it mean for wine to have "legs"? I'm too lazy to look it up, but I think I like it.

Comments

[samaphore]

Small, dangling rivers of wine on the inside of a wine glass. Good, supposedly.

[waylandsmith]

when you swish the wine around in the glass the legs are the small lines you see on the edges of the glass as the wine flows back to the bottom. The bigger and thicker the legs the more sugar is in the wine.

[sorcel]

I mostly second samaphore and waylandsmith, but let me add some

[dansminutes]

I will second waylandsmith on this - it's not an especially good or bad thing (de gustibus non est disputandum) but simply a measure of the amount of sugar in the wine; dryer wines will have more narrow legs (the rivulets back down into the glass after swishing) and sweeter wines will have wider legs. Dessert wines, for instance, will have very wide legs.

All wines have "legs"... if you're looking coloquially for a very good wine (one that will "last"), you might describe it as having "legs" (like running, one that will keep going) but this is not strictly the definition of the word when in reference to wines.

Your assignment: research the term "brix" when applied to wines.

Hint: http://www.epicurious.com/drinking/wine_dictionary/entry?id=5651

P.S. Extra credit: "What is the Balling scale?"

[dansminutes]

I should also mention that you can read about legs here:

http://www.epicurious.com/drinking/wine_dictionary/search?query=legs

And, for that matter, here:

http://tinyurl.com/2oqgn9