When wine drinkers swirl their glass and watch those streaks coming down, they say they’re looking at the legs. But the German term kirchenfenster, meaning “church windows,” makes a great substitute because of the arches of church windows. Do you have another term for that wine streaming down the side of a glass? This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Kirchenfenster”
You know how wine drinkers will twirl their glass, hold it up, look at it, and they’ll be watching those little thick streaks that come down, the colorless streaks?
Oh, I didn’t know.
I thought they were looking for lipstick stains.
No.
No, they’re looking for what they call the legs.
These are the things that are due to the high glycerin and sugar content of the wine.
And it’s sort of these clear little things that come down.
And they call them legs.
That’s a cool term.
But I’m never going to call them legs again because I came across a great German word for these.
How long is it?
It’s pretty long.
It’s Kirchenfenster.
Oh, that’s nice.
Isn’t that great?
Kirchenfenster.
Church windows.
Yes, that’s exactly it.
Because, you know, they look like the little arched windows, a row of windows in a church.
Isn’t that great?
Yeah, but you know what that reminds me of?
The legs dripping down.
Remember when we talked about this term for the snot dripping out of the nose of a kid?
Lamb’s legs.
So yeah, definitely.
Yeah, Kirshenfenster.
Definitely Kirshenfenster.
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