Nibbling Tears of Wine

The meniscus of an alcohol-rich solution is known to climb upwards due to an evaporation-induced Marangoni stress, thus initiating the tears of wine phenomenon. Rather than merging directly, the tears may bob up and down when they make contact with the underlying reservoir, appearing to nibble at its edge. We present a qualitative description of this flow and propose a simple theoretical model for this behavior. We thus rationalize the observed dependence of the nibbling frequency on the system parameters.