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The Physics of Wine Swirling

Posted by samzenpus on from the just-drink-it dept.

sciencehabit writes "Meet the new flavor of wine: fruity with a hint of fluid dynamics. Oenophiles have long gotten the best out of their reds by giving their glasses a swirl before sipping. A new study has revealed the physics behind that sloshing, showing that three factors may determine whether your merlot arcs smoothly or starts to splash. The researchers also landed on another important discovery: how overly enthusiastic wine swirlers manage to splash their drinks, possibly staining their sweaters."

27 of 98 comments (clear)

  1. Before you make fun... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Before the inevitable ridicule, the reason the wine is swirled is to get the aroma into the air inside the glass, enhancing flavor perception. As an analogy imagine taking a shit. You plop one, it stinks real bad for a while but then it gets better. Then you drop another, this stirs up the water and brings the stink back again for a bit.

    1. Re:Before you make fun... by ddxexex · · Score: 2, Funny

      Sorry, this is slashdot. Only car analogies work here. :P Anyone have the car analogy?

    2. Re:Before you make fun... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Sorry, this is slashdot. Only car analogies work here. :P Anyone have the car analogy?

      Hm... okay. Imagine you've taken a shit in your car....

    3. Re:Before you make fun... by gstoddart · · Score: 5, Funny

      Sorry, this is slashdot. Only car analogies work here. :P Anyone have the car analogy?

      When huffing gasoline, you should gently swirl the container to maximize the bouquet without spilling.

      --
      Lost at C:>. Found at C.
    4. Re:Before you make fun... by Red+Flayer · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Developing the nose of the wine is one reason to swirl the wine, albeit a very small one.

      The real reason to swirl is if the wine hasn't been aerated sufficiently. Red wines in particular (to varying degree depending on varietal, age, etc) have a high concentration of tannins, which are responsible for the astringency of the wine. Aeration of the wine will oxidize the tannins, reducing their astringency.

      Aeration will also mellow the other flavors via oxidation. I have found that a lot of people who say "I only like white wine" are actually just not a fan of the tannins in red wine. Proper aeration after uncorking often results in them liking red wines, especially if I choose a fruitier varietal.

      Good wine snobs will test the nose of the wine (e.g., sniff it), then taste it. If it's too astringent to properly enjoy, they'll either let the glass sit for a while, or swirl the glass to aerate the wine.

      --
      "Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
    5. Re:Before you make fun... by bobaferret · · Score: 2

      Also as an FYI the other reason to swirl is to observe the viscosity of the rivulets of wine running down the glass after you've stopped swirling. The slower and fatter the rivulets the more sugar still remains in the wine. ie. it's stickier so it moves more slowly. Or to put it in car analogies... When you change your oil and you take the old stuff and swirl it around in a bucket the more use the oil the more it will effect how it sticks to the side of the bucket. The longer the wine has sat around, the more sugars are converted and the less viscous the wine. As for the bouquet if it smells anything like a car, it's bad, except maybe that Bordeaux scented air fresher or the breathalyzer you have to blow into to get it started after one too many DUIs.

    6. Re:Before you make fun... by Red+Flayer · · Score: 5, Interesting

      That's a pile of horseshit (though yes, the movie Sideways does suck).

      People get all geeked out over all kinds of subjects, and there is no reason for wine geekery to be a less valid form of geekery than, say, smartphone geekery or movie geekery.

      I'm a wine geek. I like tasting different wines, identifying what flavors are present and the compounds responsible for those flavors. I like appreciating the difference between a young wine vs. a mature wine due to oxidation in the bottle. I enjoy discussing the characteristics of the wine I'm sharing with friends or family, I enjoy the hunt for a bargain good wine. I delight in understanding the relationships between terroir, grape varietal, cultivation methods, and the flavors of wine. Winemaking is science wrought as art.

      To sum up -- you suck for being a bitter, xenophobic geek. Not understanding another form of geekery is not a valid reason to belittle it.

      --
      "Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
    7. Re:Before you make fun... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

      Who needs to imagine?

    8. Re:Before you make fun... by pjt33 · · Score: 3, Informative

      Xenophonic or oenophobic?

    9. Re:Before you make fun... by DanTheManMS · · Score: 4, Informative

      Obligatory XKCD link. #915: Connoisseur

    10. Re:Before you make fun... by snowgirl · · Score: 2

      'You Are Not So Smart': Why We Can't Tell Good Wine From Bad

      Not saying that I know definitively that you can't, but a lot of people think that they can, but actually can't. Even when they've been studying it at University.

      --
      WARNING! This girl exceeds the MAXIMUM SAFE standards established by the FDA for BRATTINESS
    11. Re:Before you make fun... by snowgirl · · Score: 5, Informative

      Aeration will also mellow the other flavors via oxidation. I have found that a lot of people who say "I only like white wine" are actually just not a fan of the tannins in red wine. Proper aeration after uncorking often results in them liking red wines, especially if I choose a fruitier varietal.

      I know that I've started enjoying Red Wines a lot more since I learned that you have to let it aerate. Opening a bottle of red wine about 30 mins before I intend to drink it makes the red wine taste a lot better.

      --
      WARNING! This girl exceeds the MAXIMUM SAFE standards established by the FDA for BRATTINESS
    12. Re:Before you make fun... by DerekLyons · · Score: 2

      Also as an FYI the other reason to swirl is to observe the viscosity of the rivulets of wine running down the glass after you've stopped swirling. The slower and fatter the rivulets the more sugar still remains in the wine. ie. it's stickier so it moves more slowly.

      Not quite. That phenomena is known as the 'legs of wine' or 'tears of wine', and it's related to the wine's alcohol content not it's sugar content.

    13. Re:Before you make fun... by ozmanjusri · · Score: 5, Funny

      Good wine snobs will test the nose of the wine (e.g., sniff it), then taste it. If it's too astringent to properly enjoy, they'll either let the glass sit for a while, or swirl the glass to aerate the wine.

      I just blow bubbles through my straw. Does that make me a good or bad wine snob?

      --
      "I've got more toys than Teruhisa Kitahara."
    14. Re:Before you make fun... by iggymanz · · Score: 2

      it would be more accurate to say that very inexpensive wines can be found that have the balanced and complex tastes of the very expensive. I'm always happy to find $6 or $11 wines that can rival the $80 a bottle, since I'm married with children the budget isn't there for the latter.

    15. Re:Before you make fun... by RivenAleem · · Score: 2

      The latter being the Children?

    16. Re:Before you make fun... by fatphil · · Score: 2

      If you open a bottle of wine and let is stand for half an hour, you will affect about the top 2mm at the surface.

      I was at a dinner party where your claim was made, and an industrial chemist pounced on the claim, proceeding to scribble half a dozen formulae, and do some quick calculations. There is vastly more aeration from pouring than from even hours of standing.

      Do a double-blind test to compare. Include a third sample that's been poured into a decanter, and then poured out again.

      You're probably enjoying the wine more due to the anticipation.

      --
      Also FatPhil on SoylentNews, id 863
    17. Re:Before you make fun... by fatphil · · Score: 2

      I love the thesis he's presenting, but that study is flawed in several ways. It confuses what they sense, and what they *claim* they sense. The claims are obviously bullshit, but that doesn't mean the sensory side is incapable of detecting differences. It's a psychology test, not a physiology one.

      I'm a beer taster, much of my spare time is devoted to beer. I hang around with a lot of people who share the same hobby. It is absolutely impossible to pigeon-hole them all together. Some are very insightful, and I always like hearing their views, yet others are clearly full of crap who would be exposed to a double-blind test instantly. I obviously rate myself above average in this field - but that's because I *do* go out of my way to set up double-blind tests - and I'll have the beer multiple times, sometimes years apart, recording scores and descriptions each time, and my rating of a beer is very often identical. (I have a memory like a sieve, there's no way I could recall what I've written in the past.)

      I'm prepared to believe there's the same level of variation in wine tasters, and that pigeon-holing them is sloppy. Which of course doesn't counter the argument that a fair proportion of people involved in the wine world are full of crap. It's probably a minority but certainly a very visible minority, as I suspect that the ones most in the public eye are the worst offenders. I'd trust the sommelier at my local big hotel's restaurant much more than I'd trust any of the wine journalists I've seen in newspapers, certainly. (Partly because it's interactive - I can probe him and see if he responds to the right stimuli.)

      --
      Also FatPhil on SoylentNews, id 863
    18. Re:Before you make fun... by Waccoon · · Score: 2

      I think that makes you a wine slob.

  2. that's nice, but.... by tverbeek · · Score: 5, Funny

    I've found that drinking wine directly from the bottle makes all of this irrelevant.

    --
    http://alternatives.rzero.com/
    1. Re:that's nice, but.... by Burdell · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Don't you mean box?

    2. Re:that's nice, but.... by Kreigaffe · · Score: 2

      My liverspots for a mod point.

      Look, wine snobs, you're all doing it wrong. Wine comes in a perfectly sized bottle with a neck sized perfectly for grasping in your hamfists. It comes with a cork stopper to replace, so that as you bob and weave your way across the room and back, your beverage doesn't slosh out -- and further, it's not carbonated, so all that sloshing doesn't result in a messy explosion.

      The stuff is made to drink by the bottle, from the bottle. I just can't fathom how so many people fail to understand and appreciate this fact.

      --
      ... still waiting for this free-as-in-beer free beer I keep hearing about. :|
  3. Re:"Centrifugal force" by need4mospd · · Score: 2
    I think imaginary forces fit in quite well with most wine drinkers.

    Nutty aromas and all.

  4. Re:"Centrifugal force" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    http://xkcd.com/123/

  5. Swine Whirling by Stoutlimb · · Score: 3, Funny

    For some reason I accidentally read the title as "The Physics of Swine Whirling"

  6. Re:"Centrifugal force" by alex67500 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    November 23rd, 2011. This is the day xkcd replaced wikipedia as the central source of knowledge :-)

  7. shaken but not stirred, wine vintage 1.3.3 by Teeroy32 · · Score: 2

    So do I have to swirl my computer around to get wine at its best, that must be why I can't get COD to install on ubuntu. LOL

    --
    I don't have an attitude problem, Its you that has a problem with my attitude