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Viscosity

Term for the viscosity of liquids based on the internal friction of their molecules, which attract each other and counteract the flow effect. The term goes back to the typically viscous sap of the berries in the plant genus mistletoe; "viscous" means "tough like bird glue". Bird glue was obtained from such mistletoe. It decreases with increasing temperature. Sugar solutions or honey have a much higher viscosity compared to water. In wine, this viscosity is expressed as body; especially wines with a high proportion of alcohol, residual sugar and total extract have a pronounced viscosity. The content of the viscous alcohol type glycerol also plays a certain role. Especially sweet wines such as Ausbruch, Trockenbeerenauslese and Eiswein are characterised by higher viscosity.

Viskosität - Wasser und Honig und Pechtropfenexperiment seit 1930

In the context of a wine evaluation and wine description, the terms fat, supple, oily, melting or viscous are used for this. Such a wine is characterised by corresponding church windows in the so-called "ogival style". During fining or filtration, where extract substances are also removed depending on the intensity of the process, the viscosity decreases. The negative term for an undesirable viscosity of the wine is viscous or lind, which can increase to the wine defect Lindton if it is very pronounced. The viscosity of a wine has an influence on the trigeminal sensations when drinking wine. The left picture above shows the viscosity of various liquids as a function of temperature. The right picture above shows an experiment with pitch, a super-tough material, that has been running since 1930. The first drop fell in 1938, others followed in 1947, 1954, 1962, 1970, 1979, 1988, 2000 and 2014. The picture below shows two liquids, the blue-green one on the left is low viscosity like water, the orange one on the right is high viscosity like honey.

Viskosität - Wasser und Honig

Liquids: From Prolineserver - self made, Handbook of Physics, CC BY-SA 2.5, link
Water and honey: By Synapticrelay - own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, Link

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