A thin, filmy sediment or crystalline deposit that forms in old wines, particularly port wine, during aging.
From 'bee' + 'wing,' named for the delicate, thin, wing-like appearance of the floating sediment in the bottle. This term originated in wine-making vocabulary, probably in 18th-century England or Portugal.
Beeswing is actually a sign of a well-made, aged wine—those delicate crystal-like particles show the wine has been stored long enough for complex chemical changes to happen, and serious wine collectors actually seek out wines with pronounced beeswing as proof of authenticity and age.
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