My sense of smell has abandoned me, and there’s very little fun to be had from wine when you can’t smell anything, save for the physiological effects of the alcohol. Port was a bit better: I managed to get some bliss from the sugar and tannin on my tongue. But I still couldn’t ‘get’ the wine at all. It’s like looking at a picture through frosted glass.

I’m hoping that tomorrow I’ll have recovered: the big nag is that with each successive cold there might be some cumulative damage to the olfactory epithelium - just as you get with your hearing from attending too many Iron Maiden, Whitesnake, Gary Moore, AC/DC and Saxon concerts in your youth. It’s concerning to think that as you get older you lose the fine nuances, and end up just appreciating the brutal, obvious wines - or find yourself relying on your memory and reputations to assist you in sorting good from poor.

Last night I tasted a good Merlot; one which caught me a bit by surprise. I really wasn’t expecting it to be that good. For a start, it was from South Africa, and secondly, it was from an unnamed producer, bottled as Marks & Spencer’s own label. But that is pretty serious stuff, and it went very well with the barbecue I was cooking. So much so, that I ended up not bothering to open any other samples, and drunk most of the bottle.

Marks & Spencer Silver Tree Merlot 2005 Stellenbosch, South Africa
Sealed with a Diam. that lovely Merlot has a gravelly, minerally nose with nice spicy depth to the palate, which displays appropriately ripe (but not jammy) fruit. It’s fruity, but not overly so, and there’s just a tip of greenness here, but it’s a good sort of greenness - that is a wine perfectly in balance. Satisfying stuff with some old world elegance. Very stylish and a bargain at that price. I reckon that must come from a serious producer. 89/100 (£8.99 Marks & Spencer)