Philippe Faure-Brac, who won world's best sommelier in 1992 and current president of French Sommelier Association, caught COVID-19 a year ago during the first wave of the virus in France. And that led to him losing his senses of smell and taste. His ability to smell disappeared for 10 days, while it took several weeks before his sense of taste returned.

He said he tried to use the wines he was quite familiar with, especially those with heavy fruity and spicy aromas, to help awaken his sensory memory. He also trained by smelling and tasting herbs and aromatic plants on a daily basis. He thinks that the sommeliers – wine tasters – should be part of an early vaccination program in France.