Wine packaging has become a very competitive business and anything that will give the edge over competitor products deserves a second look. A scientist at Brandeis University has come up with a solution against dripping wine bottles.

Many have tried, with varying levels of success, to curb the dreaded drip. Some suggest a quick rotation of the bottle at the end, while others wrap a napkin or cloth around it. Another option is to insert a pourer into the opening, which works as well as it is unsightly.

Daniel Perlman, a biophysicist and wine lover at Brandeis, analysed the necks of wine bottles to find out exactly why dripping happens. The answer turns out to be that water loves glass. The connection between glass and water molecules is stronger than the connection between water molecules to themselves. That means that water – the main ingredient in wine – would rather stick to the glass than to other water molecules. So it will adhere to the neck of the wine bottle and then drip somewhere unwanted.

Perlman’s solution is simple: a furrow is carved around the neck, right below the opening, of about 2 mm wide and 1 mm deep. This groove acts as a moat to keep wine from running down the neck. Perlman created the wine bottle with the help of a diamond-tipped saw, which most of us non-physicist do not have handily at home.