Over the past few years I have become increasingly aware of a new phenomenon in a worrying proportion of red wines. These wines leave my palate feeling as though it has been energetically scoured by sandpaper. Typically, they smell rather winning and opulent. They enter the mouth all big, ripe and flattering. But by the end of the tasting experience, my mouth feels pinched, raw and dry, as though it will never again know the soothing effect of saliva.

Since we all have different physical capabilities and sensitivities, as well as different likes and dislikes, I assumed that this reaction to them was intensely personal. But James Forbes, who was a buyer for Oddbins wine stores and now represents Argentine wine in the UK, recently wrote to me out of the blue describing exactly the phenomenon mentioned above and asking whether I had any idea what explained it.