When Covid-19 steals her sense of smell, this wine expert loses her career
Published on: Monday, September 20, 2021
Photo: AFP
Kota Kinabalu: A French winemaking expert lost her most important skill when she lost her sense of smell due to Covid-19.
Hélène Barre, 35, had the condition called anosmia when she fell ill with the coronavirus in November last year.
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Her slow recovery was made worse when everything smelled different from what they usually did before she had anosmia.
For Barre, an oenologist or expert on wines and winemaking, her career and livelihood depended on her ability to smell.
"It's our work tool, our way of detecting problems," Barre, who works at a wine cooperative in the southwestern French town of Limoux, told the New York Times.
"We use it to describe the wine, but also to analyse and criticise it. It's like taking a bricklayer's trowel away. Very frustrating. And nerve-wracking."
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Barre, who can still do other work at the cooperative, said her employer and colleagues had been understanding.
She still has not fully recovered her smelling ability and feels helpless relying on others to taste and approve wines as grape harvest season starts.
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"It's very stressful to ask myself, 'Tomorrow, if I never recover my sense of smell, what do I do?'" Barre said. "And I haven't answered that question yet."
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