My neighbour Mr Amorim

One of the most interesting encounters I had while in Porto last week (see my videos this week) was with the current head of Amorim, the world's leading cork supplier. The energetic António Amorim was my neighbour at dinner on Thursday night at The Yeatman, overlooking Porto across the Douro. Just in from Buenos Aires, he clearly spends a huge proportion of each year commuting between wine regions and the offices of those who guide them.

I remember writing a column in the Wine Spectator in the early 1990s, before I fell foul of its publisher Marvin Shanken, bemoaning the...