Are "Off Wine Days" a Real Thing? If so, why?

[T_Williams]

I’ve experienced this in the past. One reason I don’t find all the weather related explanations viable is that usually when someone is having this ‘off day’ the people around them are not.

Personally, I think its just one of things where some part of us is having an off day. Like those days when we have a random ringing in the ear or headache, etc and can find no good or consistent explanation for it. It’s probably a day where our sense of smell is just off. Being wine geeks we notice it because we use and focus on that sense in ways most people just rarely ever do. A person not carrying out an activity like trying to engage with a dozen wines in a day might not notice their sense of smell being weaker than normal. We might not even notice if its a day where we jut sip a simple wine we are used to with dinner.

Well said. The human mind + body is a complicated machine and it has some better, worse and different days. A day when you aren’t tasting wines as well and/or wines don’t taste as good or the same to you, I think that just happens here and there.

Just like all the random variation you experience in virtually all other facets of your mental and physical experience.

Being human, we always want explanations for things, so we theorize about root days, barometric pressure, humidity, the moon and so forth. But I think Cris’s explanation is far more likely.

So your theory is that all 4 people happened to have their taste buds off on the same day coincidentally?

The only other theory is that all 5 bottles were off coincidentally. Of course there are permutations of this analysis, ie: if all 5 bottles are off they would be off everyday, but for each persons taste buds to be off it would be 4 separate probabilities all occurring on the same day.

If seems like neither explanation is probable, but both are possible. My bets on bad bottles

Moon phases and root days sound as probable of voodoo Dolls and hexes.

[Victor_Hong]

Well said. The human mind + body is a complicated machine and it has some better, worse and different days. A day when you aren’t tasting wines as well and/or wines don’t taste as good or the same to you, I think that just happens here and there.

Just like all the random variation you experience in virtually all other facets of your mental and physical experience.

Being human, we always want explanations for things, so we theorize about root days, barometric pressure, humidity, the moon and so forth. But I think Cris’s explanation is far more likely.

So your theory is that all 4 people happened to have their taste buds off on the same day coincidentally?

The only other theory is that all 5 bottles were off coincidentally. Of course there are permutations of this analysis, ie: if all 5 bottles are off they would be off everyday, but for each persons taste buds to be off it would be 4 separate probabilities all occurring on the same day.

If seems like neither explanation is probable, but both are possible. My bets on bad bottles

Moon phases and root days sound as probable of voodoo Dolls and hexes.

That sounds wacko. Be serious. Must be feng shui.

[Tom_G_l_a_s_g_o_w]

New England - Wikipedia.

Noo Yawk is generally not considered part of New England.

Most of all by New Englanders.

[Victor_Hong]

New England - Wikipedia.

Noo Yawk is generally not considered part of New England.

Most of all by New Englanders.

[Sarah_Kirschbaum]

OK pedantic pants. How about any greater region that could be defined by the predominant weather that would encompass New York.

Did you also have a bad wine day that day, Victor?

I live in Philadelphia, so neither New England nor the greater New York area is particularly accurate.

[Chris_Seiber]

Why did Victor and Cris make those mistakes? Was it humidity, biorhythms, barometric pressure? Is today not a map day?

[David_Bu3ker]

New England - Wikipedia.

Noo Yawk is generally not considered part of New England.

Most of all by New Englanders.

Exactly. We pretty much universally hate New York.

[Arv_R]

Nicolas Joly discusses biodynamism, root days and all that below, with a rabid Jets fan.

Talking Biodynamics with Nicolas Joly - Part II - ...

He omits the ‘map day’ mentioned upthread though.

[John_Morris]

Nicolas Joly discusses biodynamism, root days and all that below, with a rabid Jets fan.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPmSLMieX00&ab_channel=WineLibraryTV

He omits the ‘map day’ mentioned upthread though.

Joly appears much saner than I imagined.

[Arv_R]

That’s only after some Gary Vee shock therapy…

[Anton_D]

OK pedantic pants. How about any greater region that could be defined by the predominant weather that would encompass New York.

Did you also have a bad wine day that day, Victor?

I live in Philadelphia, so neither New England nor the greater New York area is particularly accurate.

This doesn’t seem too tough.

Where is the original York? In the original “England,” eh?

So, where would New “York” be if not in “New England?”

Now, why there is a Paris, Texas; Rome, Georgia; and Paris, Tennessee? I dunno.

[Victor_Hong]

Noo Yawk was associated with the Dutch (Nieuw Asterdam), while the areas north of it were associated with England (New England).

[Lawrence_Wang]

Similar experience this past holiday season down in Costa Mesa with my brother… same(-ish) wines as the previous year, same crew, same venue, similar weather, but everything tasted flat to all of us. Chalked it up to stress fatigue… stuff was tasting great the following day though!

[Cris_Whetstone]

OK pedantic pants. How about any greater region that could be defined by the predominant weather that would encompass New York.

Did you also have a bad wine day that day, Victor?

I live in Philadelphia, so neither New England nor the greater New York area is particularly accurate.

Ha ha. My bad on the particular location.

The point about the weather still stands though. I’m sure whatever the barometric pressure was in Philly, it was something similar 90 miles north. Or the other way to the south towards Baltimore and DC. Unless everyone had a bad wine down in ‘whatever one may call that greater region without ruffling provincial feathers( )’ then the idea the weather can play a factor in how wines perform is bunk.

[Peter_Kleban]

To get back to the original question, are “Off Wine Days” a real thing? Well they are for me. There are days when I just know I won’t enjoy any wine very much, everything will be “meh” at best, and sure enough whatever I open doesn’t enchant. Why that is, or when it will happen I just don’t know. Some sixth sense kicks in and lets me know, but where it comes from and what it correlates to is beyond me. Similarly, I sometimes know a wine will work, even though it doesn’t seem to fit. For instance tonight, a cold one (for central NJ) with our first snow of the season freshly fallen, I had an urge to open a Pibarnon rosé, and sure enough it was wonderful. Why a “summer wine” should work in January is a good question, to which I have no answer.

The other point is that in Sarah’s case, several people had an “Off Wine Day” simultaneously. Was it the power of suggestion? Some weather related effect? Pure chance? Who knows?

[Tom_G_l_a_s_g_o_w]

To get back to the original question, are “Off Wine Days” a real thing? Well they are for me. There are days when I just know I won’t enjoy any wine very much, everything will be “meh” at best, and sure enough whatever I open doesn’t enchant. Why that is, or when it will happen I just don’t know. Some sixth sense kicks in and lets me know, but where it comes from and what it correlates to is beyond me. Similarly, I sometimes know a wine will work, even though it doesn’t seem to fit. For instance tonight, a cold one (for central NJ) with our first snow of the season freshly fallen, I had an urge to open a Pibarnon rosé, and sure enough it was wonderful. Why a “summer wine” should work in January is a good question, to which I have no answer.

The other point is that in Sarah’s case, several people had an “Off Wine Day” simultaneously. Was it the power of suggestion? Some weather related effect? Pure chance? Who knows?

I’ve cured myself of the rose only good for summer misconception. I like rose most anytime, but especially on a day like you describe.

[Peter_Kleban]

Interesting, Tom. Of course I should know better–if I’ve learned one thing about wine it’s that there are no hard and fast rules, you can for example always be surprised and find a bottle of a wine you thought you didn’t like or didn’t think would fit that is in fact really good. That’s one of the things I really like about wine, you can never be 100% sure.

[Tom_G_l_a_s_g_o_w]

Interesting, Tom. Of course I should know better–if I’ve learned one thing about wine it’s that there are no hard and fast rules, you can for example always be surprised and find a bottle of a wine you thought you didn’t like or didn’t think would fit that is in fact really good. That’s one of the things I really like about wine, you can never be 100% sure.

The roses I like tend to be darker, more like light reds, so probably a bit of an outlier. I knew you knew better, but few wines refresh as well as a good rose on a hot or warm summer day.

[Peter_Kleban]

Yeah, the (2019) Pibarnon I opened is I guess in this category. Color is pretty dark, and it has a good bit of cut associated with the Mourvèdre. Lovely wine in any case!

[Markus_S]

Noo Yawk was associated with the Dutch (Nieuw Asterdam), while the areas north of it were associated with England (New England).

So you are leaving out the south and the state named after the Virgin Queen, and the other colonies the English established??