(WSJ) - What happens when a wine writer loses his appetite for wine? This summer, Wall Street Journal wine columnist Will Lyons found out.

IT MAY SURPRISE YOU to learn that for a few weeks this summer not a single glass of wine passed my lips. No, I wasn’t on some self-inflicted detox, I simply didn’t fancy it.

A few weeks earlier I had gone under the surgeon’s knife to clear up a minor ailment affecting one of my kidneys. Having been born with this condition, I had been putting off the operation for…well, some years. But I finally decided the time had come to get it fixed.

I had read about people losing their sense of smell after general anesthetic, or in some cases their taste being affected, but I was pretty confident, having spoken to my surgeon, that it wouldn’t happen to me. Still, I was more than relieved to find, when I did come round after a few hours under, that I could smell the flowers in my room and taste the tea I craved.

But something had changed. While I still had my appetite, my palate was different. All I felt like eating was poached salmon and broccoli, soup and toast, and chocolate mousse. All those meals I had enjoyed involving beef, pasta, cheese and eggs were off the menu. It was if I had undergone a palate transplant in which mine had been replaced with that of a child. More worryingly, the thought of a glass of wine just didn’t appeal.