Covid and wine tasting

While fully appreciating that there are many more, very serious consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic, I wanted to share my experiences around Covid and wine appreciation. In April last year I completely lost my sense of taste and smell for three weeks, presumably as a result of catching Covid-19. I’m fortunate to say that I recovered quickly, but my sense of smell and taste has still not completely returned to normal, even now. Although some things smell and taste the same, others don’t, and I appear to frequently detect an unpleasant chemical smell.

The sad news is that my appreciation of red wine has been badly affected. Although I can still enjoy white wine and Champagne, I have completely lost my love and enjoyment of a nice glass of red. The nose of nearly every red wine I taste now has a sickly, oak smell and the taste is not much better. I’m worried that I may have lost one of my greatest pleasures in life. I have completely lost the desire to open a bottle of red in the evening, even with a nice steak. Although serious enough for me, it must be a disaster for professionals in the wine trade who may have been affected by Covid in the same way.

My question to the Decanter readership is: have others suffered these side effects? And, looking for a glimmer of hope, has anyone had their senses return to normal after a period of time? I worry that my red wine reserves, carefully collected over 30 years in anticipation of enjoyment in years to come, may be destined for the auctioneer’s hammer.

Richard Smith, by email