"Organoleptically challenged Swede goes on a rant"-WARNING

And in restaurants.

I've more than once asked to have my table moved in a restaurant because someone at a nearby table was wearing so much perfume that I could hardly tell what I was drinking or eating.

Nils,

I am with you 100% on this one. We did a whole series of wine dinners at a very nice restaurant two years ago. One attendee bathed in a very strong scent, and it was impossible to escape her odors anyplace in a rather large room. Once we were seated with her, and it was all that I could do, just to breath. Tasting great Burgs and Bdx were totally impossible, and much of the food was tainted with the aroma.

We changed our season tickets for the symphony, because of a lady, who occupied the seats in front of us. My wife and I would leave with headaches, and not from the musical selections.

I almost feel that there should be a de-contamination unit outside the door for any serious tasting.

Hunt

Nils, Indeed, perfumed individuals are the bane of tastings and restaurants (though less so than smokers, but they are rare in such settings nowadays). I have on more than one occasions reseated myself (when possible) at a tasting to escape some particularly odoriferous individual (or, worse, a *table* of them). San Francisco, I believe, passed a law some years ago that banned the use of excessive perfume in public spaces -- a law that has been assailed as "political correctness" run amok, but which had particularly salutary effects on air quality in elevators and other closed spaces [1].

Mark Lipton

Yes, I was going to mention the SF law. Indeed the perfume is a problem for serious tasting -- I love Hunt's decontamination stations, I can kinda picture hosing off a Baroness or two! -- but I do feel making a law about it is going too far! :)

-E

Salut/Hi Nils Gustaf Lindgren,

le/on Sun, 11 Sep 2005 18:03:20 GMT, tu disais/you said:-

Not from me you don't. I remember once having the embarassing duty of asking Jacquie (SWMBO, and a redoubtable person who has withstood me for 37 years) to wash some flthy muck off her neck before she polluted the entire room.

Since then, we have a strict rule when wine tasting. "No stink stuff".

Mind you, an even worse solecism occurred once (many years ago) at a trade wine tasting in London. M Caze had done us the honour of bringing a 30 year vertical of Ch Lynch Bages, and was talking us through it, when I noticed, to my astonishment that the '66 had a very strong scent of cigar smoke. Removing my nose from my glass, I rapidly discovered that the odour (very pleasant in itself, but utterly incompatible with wine) came from the large stogie of the (somewhat larger) "gentleman" about 5 yards from me. I was amazed to note that no-one else had said anything, so I took it upon myself (I'm not noted for my "British" reserve) to ask the gentleman (fairly politely, in fact) if he would have the courtesy to extinguish his cigar. I was stupefied to be addressed in accents that were both broadly american and intransigently offensive, to the effect that he enjoyed smoking his cigar and no damn limey was going to stop him. Well this damn limey did stop him. After pointing out that his stinking weed destroyed any possibility of smelling the subtleties of the wine, that he weas being grossly discourteous to M Cazes in smoking during such an important tasting, and pointing out that at apporoximately 10 yard intervals, large signs saying "No Smoking" were to be found, I had him ejected by the staff.

Like you I fear that I do not put up with such behaviour peacefully — especially when fellow guests behave like this. I remember that I had to ask a number of English ”Hooray Henries” - and a Henrietta — whether they had stopped trying to signal the election of a Pope during a dinner at Ch. Angelus on the night they learned they had been promoted in the 1996 revision. I am pleased to say that at least they took the hint, but they ought to have put their joint brain cell to use and known better in the first place. Similarly I had to quieten a somewhat rowdy ball crowd when a group of Army Fifes and Drums — no doubt ordered to attend and unable to do anythign about it themselves — were trying to play and nobody had the courtesy to listen. Some complain about the very young but my own - senior middle-aged — age group‘s manners are often no better than they should be as my grandmother would have said.

Timothy Hartley

M.

Nils, this brings to mind a question: did you take any medication before going? I've had the misfortune of once coming down with a head cold just before a wine tasting, and coped with this by doping myself with pseudoephedrine (a nasal decongestant) before going. Although I could breath freely through my nose, I found that my sense of smell was

Mark Lipton

On a somewhat similar note, I loose all ability to taste (don't think it affected the "smeller" much) if I have taken any remedy containing zinc. I would also imagine that other products/substances can wreck havoc on one's senses.

Kinda' like "approving" the wine for the table, when one has JUST brushed their teeth. Maybe I can invent a wine-friendly toothpaste...

Hunt

Nils, this brings to mind a question: did you take any medication before

No, I did not. I try to avoid that kind of medication as much as possible - I find them by and large useless (and I´ve had my days in the ENT emergency room, let me tell you! I wasn´t ALWAYS a psychiatrist). Just sit and let it pass, very few people actually die from head colds, that´s why we cannot cure them ...

Cheers

Nils Gustaf

I agree (and I consult for the pharmaceutical industry!). I rarely take any non-prescription medication, but I did in the instance mentioned because I knew that I would smell nothing with a congested nose. My usual philosophy is that fevers and related symptoms actually help combat the infection, so if it won't harm me to just weather the symptoms.

Mark Lipton

Although too much perfume can be a problem, many other things are just as much a problem for me. In most states in the US now there are restrictions concerning smoking in restaurants and many other public places, so smoking is not the problem it once was.

I find strong smelling, very ripe cheeses more of a distraction than most perfumes, in moderation. I believe Hunt mentioned brushing teeth soon before the tasting. Many US toothpastes are loaded with mint and other things to perfume the breath, and the effects of these can linger quite a while. Plain baking soda works fairly well if one must brush teeth before tasting wine, or even very good food for that matter. Other distractions of a lesser degree are cooking odors from a kitchen, especially if fish or garlic has just been cooked. I also have more trouble smelling wine this time of the year when there is much pollen in the air from ragweed, etc. This is somewhat like the problem with a head cold, although less severe.

Reply to snipped-for-privacy@cwdjr.net .

Yes, yes, food odors from the kitchen! We dined at a new local spot twice, and both times, due to either a faulty, or inadequate vent hood, the aromas of garlic, fish, and onion (I added this one to your list), filled the dining area. Our food, and our wines were overcome by the smells. This establishment has gotten many rave reviews, and I've had many tell me how wonderful it is. We have not been back, but until I feel that they have done something about the vent hood, we shall stay away.

Now I like fish, onions, and love garlic, but these are aromas, that I do not find pleasant in my wine!

Thanks for mentioning this, Hunt

My doctor is one of the breed that doesn't believe in madly prescribing, so when she says, "Take this" I generally do. She recommends flunisolide for nasal irritation allergies, and says that it helps her severely congested cold patients without affecting the sense of smell much. It can interact with a number of other medications, though.

"cutecat" skrev i meddelandet news:OdrVe.9353$ snipped-for-privacy@newsread2.news.pas.earthlink.net...

Flunisolide - would that be a corticosteroid? I remeber (once more, in the ENT emergency room) a guy who worked as a flavor tester with a tobacco company (dig this - he did not smoke himself!) who had aproblem with vasomotric rhinitis which was detrimental to his work - he used, if I remember correctly, a a corticostertoid as nasal inhalant to alleviate those problems and get on with his day.

Nils Gustaf

Nils states:

"Flunisolide - would that be a corticosteroid? I remeber (once more, in the ENT emergency room) a guy who worked as a flavor tester with a tobacco company (dig this - he did not smoke himself!) who had aproblem with vasomotric rhinitis which was detrimental to his work - he used, if I remember correctly, a a corticostertoid as nasal inhalant to alleviate those problems and get on with his day."

I found you some information in a rather outdated 1996 Physicians' Desk Reference. that describes most of the drugs used in the US.

Flunisolide is an anti-inflammatory steriod having the chemical name

Reply to snipped-for-privacy@cwdjr.net .

Salut/Hi Timothy Hartley,

le/on Mon, 12 Sep 2005 15:54:51 +0100, tu disais/you said:-

I'm glad to hear it.

Ah.... there is some question as to whether the members of said species possess reasoning capacity. On my (all too frequent) contacts with them, I have to say that my personal jury is "out" on the decision. I remember to this day, one of the species turning to my wife in the middle of an excessively expensive tasting that my brother had put on, and saying "What should I think about this wine?" I think it was asked of a Ch Pétrus.

That implies the possession of a shared cell, the ability to reason with it and some form of intelligible communication. "Wah wah y'know" doesn't really count.

That's a thing I feel VERY unhappy about. I'm not a great fan of "live entertainment" in eating places, but if one has them, then I think - even if you hate their music and find their skills lacking - one owes a minimum of courtesy. That said, when it's a band of kitsch "gypsy" players, who insist upon attacking you while you're trying to digest a large plate of paprikáscsirke, and you know the only way to get rid of them is to bribe them to go away, it can be testing.

Yup, as CWDJr said (obliquely) it's a corticosteroid. As such, I'd think twice about using it for cold relief, regardless of its olfactory benefits.

Mark Lipton