Polysaccharides and tannins adsorption take part in irreversible fouling of microporous membranes during the cross-flow microfiltration of wine. This adsorption is dependent on the membrane surface properties, especially its surface free energy, and could be minimized by the development of adequate materials. The aim of this work was to study the incidence of surface free energy of microfiltration membranes on wine polysaccharides and tannins adsorption. Four different capillary organic microporous membranes (M102, M202, M302 and M402) were used. As usual methods to determine solid surface free energy were unapplicable to such microporous materials, we investigated the possibility of using a capillary rise method to characterize them. Adsorption tests were carried out from a Carignan red wine to correlate polysaccharides and tannins adsorption to membrane surface properties. Capillary rise experiments, performed on membranes using apolar and polar test liquids, allowed to classify them with regard to the apolar Lifshitz-van der Waals and polar Lewis acid/base components of their surface free energy. The four membranes differed from one another by their polarity : M102, M302 and M302 were characterized as polar materials, M102 showing a higher hydrophilicity then M202 and M302, while M402 was found to be apolar. This ordering was in fair qualitative agreement with the chemical composition of the membranes, indicating that the capillary rise method is appropriate to the characterization of such materials. Polysaccharides and tannins adsorption was observed on the four membranes. Adsorbed polysaccharides were mainly grape arabinogalactan-proteins and yeast mannoproteins, and their amount depended on the membrane surface properties : it decreased (from 0.959 to 0.336 mg g(-1) of anhydrous material) as surface polarity increased, due to unfavourable polar interactions. Contrary to polysaccharides, the maximum tannins adsorption occurred on the most polar membrane M102 (8 mg g(-1) of anhydrous material). It was lower on the M202, M302 and M402 membranes (2-3 mg g(-1)). The structure of the adsorbed molecules on the M102 membrane was also different comparing to the others, indicating that interactions implied in tannins adsorption were different in nature.