Fortunately, she still loves most Champagne, and dry white wines. Most reds and anything with residual sweetness are no-go’s. She used to enjoy, or at least tolerate my beloved Huet Secs which have a little RS. Not anymore. I can sneak an older elegant Nebbiolo, Burgundy, or structured Cru Bojo in now and then, but any red with a hint of dense fruit is rejected. Dessert wines “taste like cough syrup.” She’s an AFWE who’s not even a wine geek!
Thankfully, we have plenty of Champagne, white burgundy (including a good stock of Chablis), Sancerre, bone-dry Chenin Blanc, Muscadet, and other wines that tickle her fancy. The hundred+ cases of fine red wine in the cellar will have to wait for me and my friends to slowly visit, or for her tastes to change again.
I’m enormously lucky that my palate and my husband’s are in near 100% agreement. Not on every single wine, of course, but on all major regions, producers, grapes, etc. we have nearly identical tastes.
On the flipside, we both buy wine, usually in consultation, but sometimes…not so much.
Take it from me: tell her it’s because of her menopause and that you won’t stand for it.
…
I am now enjoying the 50% that’s left of the cellar with the bottles that are past their prime and seeing my golden retriever every 2 weeks. Who knew utter desolation was the perfect pairing for oxidized whites and flat and lifeless reds?
Or… don’t follow this winning strategy… your call.
Moving back into reality: my wife had always been a pretty big fan of Loire Cab Franc. Then for a span she couldn’t have any. The slightest hint of pyrazines would bother her. And lo and behold, about 3 years later, she helped me drain a bottle of Domaine de La Porte St-Jean Saumur-Champigny without raising an eyebrow. She is back on the Loire Cab Franc bandwagon ever since, albeit less than initially. There is hope for you yet
I’m lucky. My wife doesn’t know shit about wine, but likes nearly all the wines I open. We’re also both quite fond of gin, bourbon, rye, and single malts. We like the same style of beer, too: farmhouse ale/saison. No complaints here!
My wife’s tastes changed fairly signficantly in the last couple of years. We’re fully aligned on whites (balanced to a bit acidic, oak in check, no/light malo). She liked riper/lush reds but over the years has trended towars the dark side, though I still can’t get her on Chinon.
But over the last year she’s really started favoring whites over reds, which meant we were only drinking reds with food. Then in the last 9 months we’ve reduced our meat consumption to just once every week/every couple weeks, so now there’s really not much red wine getting popped in this house.
Also lucky to have found a wife with a fully aligned palate, though that doesn’t help the budget as this causes no reason to pause when buying to consider when/how it will be drunk.