If you close your eyes and visualize the most frightening circumstance imaginable, what are you thinking about? Are thousands of spiders swarming over you? Are you falling off of a cliff into a deep, dark never-ending abyss? Or, are you thinking about a glass of wine sitting on the table across from you? Does that last option sound strange? Before you all glance over at your bottle of wine on the counter and think there’s something scary lurking beneath that great label and peppery finish, keep calm and drink on. Some people have something called Oenophobia, which is an intense fear or hatred of…wine. Yes, wine. Oenophobia sufferers see wine as an unnatural stressor that causes irrational fear and anxiety.

I’m assuming since you are reading our blog, you enjoy a glass of wine as opposed to it terrifying you to your core. However, for people with Oenophobia, just thinking about wine can cause their heartrate to increase and give them extreme anxiety! There are a few main causes for this irrational fear, like the idea of bring a sub-par wine to a party that the host will not like, fearing the effects of the alcohol itself, and not being knowledgeable enough of wine in general.

You might be thinking the same as we were when we discovered this -- how can someone have this dreadful phobia? Or better yet, how do they fix it? In our opinion, a quick fix would be to pick up some award-winning Bishop’s Vineyard wines. Not only can you be assured of the quality, but knowing that your purchases are contributing to a good cause might just ease that anxiety and hatred of vino.