Well, there might be something to it. You know how many wines always taste best in a certain setting? Like a particular place, where the glasses are great and the “room” just works etc. You take the same wine home and it sucks on every try after that?
Yes, we’re all in the same time zone. I’ve ordered Thuns calendar for NA. The source you cite makes it look like there are only fruit, flower, leaf or root days. That isn’t true (predicated on the assumption that the biodynamic calendar isn’t BS). to be continued.
For purposes of this discussion, it’s interesting if the moon’s cycles have subtle effects on humans in any way, whether due to light or gravity.
Perhaps it’s just superstition, but when I was staying in Barolo in late August five years ago, many winemakers cited the lunar cycle as a reason to bottle that week. Of course, they need to bottle at that time of year to free up tanks for the new harvest, but several felt strongly about bottling in a narrow window that week.
As I said, I wasn’t picking on you, but your post was an example of the thousands we’ve seen here (and in forums before this). I was only using it to make the point I made. Some very simple math reveals to anyone who wants to accept it that the moon’s gravitational influence on a person (or a barrel of wine, since we often hear that moon phase is important in choosing when to rack, for example) is vanishingly small. Just moving your head casually from side to side is more acceleration by many orders of magnitude than the effect of the moon’s gravity on you. All this before we even get to the fact that the proponents offer no mechanism for translating the moon’s gravity into some physical or chemical outcome. It’s a hypothesis without any underlying observable phenomena, or proposed mechanism.
Was it just you that found the wines off and dull? Or the entire group?
I have had days when things (both wine and food) simply didn’t taste good. Not days when I was sick, sometimes even days when I felt bright and peppy, but my nose and palate were in the doldrums.
Different story if everybody agreed, don’t know what to think.
Other than a sad coincidence (I’ve lost 18 straight Candyland matches to my 6 year old so, it happens), was there any lingering aroma where you had the wine? Was anybody wearing cologne or perfume or any other strong scent that could have thrown off the nose and even the palate to some extent? You would have probably picked this up as the culprit easily but I’m trying to leave no stone unturned.
On another note, great to see a mention of the Domaine De Boingnères! I had their Armagnac at Taillevent, if I remember correctly, but I didn’t even know they made a 100% Folle Blanche. Do they label it Bas-Armagnac as well or Eau-de-vie de Folle Blanche? Yet another bottle added to the bucket list…
Hi Dan - As i wrote in the OP and in subsequent posts, everyone agreed. Four experienced tasters, and it was all four of us, not just me. If it had just been me, I’d have chalked it up to my palate being off and never started this thread.
I cooked a big batch of finely curated noodles for New Year’s dinner, but everybody either passed on eating any or passed what they did eat (quickly). The problem was not the noodles.
It does, but only because you have to be in a pressurized tin can to do it. The additional speed and height (once above 10,000’) is essentially irrelevant.
I believe the moon is proven to interact with the menstrual cycle, not sure if that is by gravity or light levels though. Not being female it is not my place to pontificate on how that could affect perceptions though.
getting in the weeds here (pun intended) but there are two calendars - sidereal and tropical. the former is the one that’s associated with maria thun while the latter is the one on the ca.rhythmofnature.net site. the sidereal is also the one used by the wine app. you can find it below - new years day on the east coast was leaf until 0847, then fruit - so actually a good day to drink wines.
My Sister in Law uses some special soap required by her special dishwasher and whatever residue it leaves behind is pretty tenacious and taints all wine it touches.
When I taste at her house, my glass(es) gets a thorough extra rinsing with
hot water else every wine drops fruit and becomes more dour.
Since you described multiple taster’s with this issue, and for all the wines, it made me think ‘equipment’ more that lunar phase.
Maybe that’s our answer, she keeps the wrong company in terms of mass…or she simply totally mismanaged the seating assignments from a gravitational point of view!
For some strange reason, I don’t believe a system that categorizes days by which astrological phase the moon is “in” (and was not even created by Steiner, by the way) has anything to do with how wine tastes. I do wonder how anyone can look at how that calendar was created and think maybe it makes sense.
