For a while I was scared. While I was ill, I noticed that\nsomething strange was happening with my palate. I could taste food OK, although\nmaybe there was a slight loss of smell (remember, what we think of as \u2018taste\u2019\nis usually smell and taste combined). But wine started tasting very strange. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
And not very nice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Both whites and reds tasted a bit simple, and also slightly\nstewed and oxidised at the same time. It was as if some sensations were missing,\nwhile others were either made up by my brain, or in some strange way I was\nbecoming hypersensitive to particular aromas that ended up masking the others. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
So I stopped opening wine. This lasted for around two weeks.\nIt was worrying: being able to discriminate among wines \u2013 to understand them,\nenjoy them, say sensible things about them, and to judge them \u2013 is a large part\nof how I make my living.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019m not ready to stop doing what I love. And I\u2019d find it difficult\nto start a new career right now, even though I\u2019m not stupid and I have\ntransferrable skills. For a while though, that\u2019s what I was looking at.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When my palate returned to normal (this happened over the\ncourse of a couple of days) I was very happy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
We age and our sensory capabilities change. While taste (the\nfive basic tastes, perceived in the mouth, largely by the tongue) seems to\nremain quite stable, smell drops off with age. Half of people between the aged\nof 65 and 80 have decreased olfactory function, and three-quarters of those over\n80 suffer from this. A reasonable number of wine professionals carry on tasting\nwine past what was previously retirement age (65). Are they still tasting well?\nAt what point does the benefit of experience become outweighed by failing\nolfactory abilities?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This brush with a dodgy sense of olfaction made me think\nabout this. I knew I wasn\u2019t tasting very well, and if it gets to the point that\nI think I\u2019m not tasting well because of age at some point in the future, then I\ndon\u2019t want to bluff it. So I\u2019m going to work out a plan B, so I can carry on\nwith my work, but it doesn\u2019t involve tasting wines professionally, just in\ncase. For now, though, I think I\u2019m tasting really well. But I don\u2019t take it for\ngranted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We\u2019ve had three weeks of lockdown now. I was sick for the first two. Now I\u2019m feeling great. I go for my permitted exercise walk every day (there are some nice fields and woods here that you can walk through), and I have two book projects to work on. I can\u2019t wait for this to be over, but at the same time I think the world will be quite different, post COVID-19.<\/p>\n\n\n\n