By Oliver Loveday
Strange things happen under a full Moon. I came home one night this week to find half a tree and someone’s spare wheel on my doorstep. Could this have been caused by schoolkids playing up due to the lunar influence? Perhaps madmen or werewolves, in their delirium dumping rubbish on people’s thresholds in some bizarre moonlit ritual? Alas, nothing quite so exciting had occurred but it was lunar related. Spring tides, raising the river levels along with this phase of the moon, regular, predictable but impressive none the less. That’s the price one pays for living on the river I guess, although watching it sweep away unsuspecting Fulham FC supporters’ cars every so often certainly makes up for it.
Many legends surround the cycles of the Moon. A full Moon has traditionally been linked to crime, mental illness (it’s the origin of the word lunacy after all), were wolves and even patterns of financial trading. The wine trade doesn’t appear to be immune either, with many claiming it is what makes their wine taste different on different days. So, could it all be true? I mean, hey, if the Moon can cause a BMW to float away it must have some effect on everything, right?
Well, the answer is that yes it does, but probably not as much as you think. Astronomers (they’re the ones who look through telescopes, not Mystic Meg) calculate that a mosquito sitting on your arm would exert a greater gravitational pull on your body than the Moon does from 400,000km above us. It is able to move the tides around though so what about the water in our bodies and even in wine? This is something of a misconception about the way that tides work and it’s only the unbounded nature of the oceans that allows tides to flow. The water in your body or in the glass of wine in your hand remains virtually unaffected.
Undoubtedly there are many things that may be influenced by or linked to the Moon that we have not been able to prove yet. If that is the case however, we will be able to measure their influence through objective testing. While wine tasting has never been sufficiently tested all of the other myths surrounding the Moon have. So is there any truth in them? Well, in 1996 Ivan Kelly, James Rotton and Roger Culver examined over 100 studies and found no significant correlation on any of the following –
homicide rates
traffic accidents
crisis calls to police or fire stations
domestic violence
births of babies
suicide
major disasters
casino payout rates
assassinations
kidnappings
aggression by professional hockey players
violence in prisons
psychiatric admissions
agitated behavior by nursing home residents
assaults
gunshot wounds
stabbings
emergency room admissions
behavioral outbursts of psychologically challenged rural adults
lycanthropy
vampirism
alcoholism
sleep walking
epilepsy
We however, as confessed wine buffs and cork dorks know that there are days when wine just does not taste as good as others. So what exactly is going on? Something must be causing it, even if it is not the moon, right?
Well, of course, but as supposed expert tasters we have to understand there are confounding factors that influence how we taste. The temperature of the room, the temperature of the wine, ambient aromas in the room, what we ate for lunch, who we are tasting with, how long we’ve been awake, how many wines we have already tasted. Most people taste very subjectively and are very easily influenced by the (sometimes very vocal) opinions of others. We are human beings after all, not lab equipment rationally analysing every aspect of the wine, but when a wine doesn’t taste as amazing as the last time we tried it we need to find a reason why. Hey, we say, it’s not my irrational human brain, it must be that lump of rock up there in the sky. That is what people do, we draw patterns where none exist (ever gazed at clouds and seen a dragon or Lion-O from Thundercats?), we cherry pick from our experiences to confirm our own prejudices.
Why should all this matter? After all it’s pretty harmless to think that the moon is responsible for our tasting experiences and customers seem to like it so it’s surely all good, right? Well I’m of the opinion that basing our judgements around this it clouds our thinking and we forget about what it is that truly makes a wine great. Take this thinking further and we are in to the realms of dousing for water and using magical crystals to improve our wines. Deep down we know that it’s not the burying of cow horns full of magic manure that create great wines, but the attention to detail and care taken in crafting the product through the rest of the process.
There is no doubt that implementing ”green” winemaking practices can result in better wines. But should we really be crediting the moon and stars for this rather than more earthly factors?
Tags: Biodynamics, Winemaking
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Really enjoyable article, Oliver. I have to say, that I broadly agree with you and though I love many biodynamic wines I suspect that it may have more to do with the care and attention paid to the vines, soil and juice rather than any lunar influence. I wonder if there are any confirmed Biodyanmic converts out there who’d like to post response to Oli’s article?
Excellent article Oli. Bring on the debate.
Magic stuff Oli. I always look at the pressure/weather to explain how wines taste. Bio/orgasmic wines are more influenced by the quality of the guy in the vineyard. I suspect the rest helps ….
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