It's funny the difference that one bottle of wine can make. For many, all it took was just one special bottle to launch them on the journey of wine geekdom. One day they were drinking wine as a commodity; the next they realised that wine could be special, moving, life-enhancing. I hear this sort of story all the time from people.

I can trace my love for Portuguese wines back to an epiphanal experience with a bottle bought for me some years ago by my wife, Fiona. It was the 1995 Cartuxa, from a winery in the Alentejo which I profiled today on the main part of my site. This was back in February 1999, and Fiona had been shopping in Bentalls in Kingston, which at the time had a fantastic Portuguese selection. Without any knowledge of what she was buying, Fiona spent £9.50 on a treat for me - this was higher than our usual spend. The wine enchanted me. It's strange how just one bottle can make such a difference.