I can no longer drink red wine.

Back in NYC at Thrillerfest, I drank two glasses of red wine at the last cocktail party. Afterward, I felt — for lack of a better word — yucky. My stomach was a bit off, my head a little cloudy. But that was it. I thought to myself, “Myself? Methinks I drank from a bad bottle.”

That was July 11.

Because I didn’t feel like it — which is odd for me, to say the least — I didn’t drink any wine at all until last Tuesday night, July 27. I then drank three smallish glasses over almost the same number of hours at dinner with a friend. I was a bit wobbly-tired but in good spirits. I walked home from the restaurant and dove into bed around 11:00pm.

At 1:30am, I woke up with a roaring upset stomach, headache and feeling heated. I got up and took a TUMS. I then went to the kitchen for Motrin. When I opened the refrigerator to get some water, the light seared my eyes. I had a broad brushstroke of ghostly light burned into my vision for the next 10 minutes or so. Really annoying and troubling.

I eventually fell back to sleep around 3:30am.

Since then, I’ve not been able to stomach the sight or smell of red wine. I had Lord Arux pour out the wine that was left in bottles from before I left for New York. I knew it had all gone bad and that it would have doubled me over from the smell.

The tyramine in red wine is apparently one of the main triggers for migraine. (I’m not certain why the Wikipedia page for Red Wine Headache doesn’t speak to the Migraine page. Very strange.)

It’s no secret I’ve been under some stress lately in all spheres. But it does seem that if I want to avoid further migraines, red wine is off the list. I’ve totally lost my taste for it and have no desire to experiment with other bottles. It’s like getting food poisoning. If you get it at a Mexican restaurant, you then have an aversion to Mexican restaurants. Same deal here.

Sadness.

But then, there’s always single malt whiskey…