Tesco only invites critics to taste their wines on days deemed favorable on the biodynamic lunar calendar.
The idea that the taste of wine changes with the lunar calendar is gaining credibility among the UK's major retailers, who believe the day, and even hour, on which wine is drunk alters its taste.
Tesco and its rival Marks & Spencer, which sell about a third of all wine drunk in Britain, now invite critics to taste their ranges only at times when the biodynamic calendar suggests they will show at their best.
The concept is an extension of biodynamic farming in which decisions about when to sow and prune are made according to patterns of lunar and cosmic rhythms. It was developed from a series of lectures given in 1924 by the Austrian philosopher-scientist Rudolf Steiner.
Tesco has used the calendar for more than two years to decide on times for its thrice-yearly critics' tastings, but has not shared its belief with customers for fear it will add yet more mystique to wine.
Biodynamic winemaking means avoiding chemical fertilisers and pesticides and encouraging biodiversity. It also involves spraying the vines with preparations which sound more like witches' potions than agricultural aids. One involves fermenting cow manure in a cow horn, buried underground over winter. In another, oak bark is fermented in the skull of a domestic animal.
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