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Three days in bed with a fever saw me eat and drink very little. When I did get out of bed, I had lost my appetite but, thank goodness, I had not lost my sense of taste or smell,” says wine writer RICHARD CALVER. 

GETTING COVID-19 shouldn’t really have been a surprise. We are, after all, in the midst of a pandemic. I had been very careful: hand sanitising, wearing a mask in most situations and getting double vaxxed. But it hit me. 

Three days in bed with a fever and a throat lined with razor blades saw me eat and drink very little. When I did get out of bed, I had lost my appetite but, thank goodness, I had not lost my sense of taste or smell. 

Anosmia, the loss of the sense of smell, would have devastated me because I have a bloodhound nose and the scientists say that 80 per cent of what you experience when you taste wine is through olfaction or the sense of smell. 

One website says: “Wine can account for more than a thousand volatile compounds that can evoke thousands of different aromas. Isn’t that what we call complexity?”

The effects of covid saw me drink no wine for eight days. This situation, together with eating much less frequently, saw me lose over three kilos in weight. Now that I have commenced regular eating again and some regular exercise, the weight has stayed off and I can fit into my “skinny” pants that were in a pile ready for disposal. Reclaimed!

When it came to wine, my first drink post-covid was a 2019 Eden Valley Riesling made by Burge Family Winemakers. The winery is now owned by Chinese shareholders, but it has a permanent place in my heart because Rick Burge, who has retired after he sold the business, taught me a great deal about wine and was a mentor of sorts. 

The first thing I noticed was how strong the wine felt, just one glass and the effects were quite challenging. The loss of body mass and not drinking seemed to be a path to becoming a one pot, not a two-pot, screamer. I had put a quarter of the bottle in a chicken risotto, so the food assisted me to gain sobriety, but I experienced a real difference in effect to pre-covid habits.

The other thing I noticed straight away was the enhancement of the complexity of the flavours that the wine presented, peach skins and a nuttiness at the back of the pallet – and a wonderful contrast of fruitiness with the savoury elements of the risotto, which I finished with feta and pine nuts. 

All of the flavours were big, bold and so much more delicious than I could remember experiencing pre-covid. 

The second wine I tried was also a white wine and a riesling, a Nick O’Leary 2021 White Rocks that had been given to me as a present (I looked on the internet and it retails for $35 a bottle). 

This wine is a credit to the Canberra region, with a wonderful clean acidity and a lime finish that makes your mouth water for more. It reflects a winemaker who is at the top of his skills. 

There are many who have died because of the effects of this pandemic and my heart goes out to them. I feel blessed for only being lightly touched and, surprisingly, for the benefits that then came my way.

Three men leave a wine bar in Civic. They are all inebriated. They hail a taxi and get in. The driver sees they are drunk, so he starts the car, revs it hard and then turns it off. 

The drunks all look surprised, but the first man gives him a $50 note, the second man thanks him for looking after them and starts to get out of the cab but the third man slaps the driver. The driver is surprised and asks why he received a slap and the third man replies: “Why did you drive so fast?”