No matter what your spouse claims about that bottle that was there last night – but is somehow missing now – it did not grow legs and walk away.
So what do the wine geeks mean when they speak to a wine’s legs?
It’s the way the wine droplets on the inside of the glass drip back down.
The legs are caused by pressure on the liquid on the sides of the glass as alcohol evaporates.
It has long been a standard that the longer the legs (the longer they stay running down the sides of the glass), the higher the alcohol content of a wine.
Sweet wines tend to have longer legs too, not necessarily just due to high alcohol content, but also due to the viscosity of the sweeter wines.