Curious Cook: The legs in your glass of wine

A swirl of wine with more than 11% alcohol content produces legs or tears flowing back down into the wine at the bottom of the glass. — AFP Relaxnews

In 2020, the global wine industry suffered a double whammy. Production was up, but consumption was down and as a result, the average price of wines had fallen worldwide.

It would be easy to blame the pandemic for these statistics, but 2020 was the third year in a row where wine consumption fell, and it fell by 2.8% globally. The closing down of hospitality venues such as bars and restaurants due to the pandemic obviously had an impact, as did the USA tariffs on EU wines. Importantly, the 17.4% fall in wine imports by China also accounted for a sizable chunk of the 2020 fall in global consumption as China is the world’s sixth largest wine importer.