It seemed like relatively easy money. £200 for what would likely be an hour's work. The job? To list my five favourite wines sealed with cork, together with a short description of each, a brief biog and a picture. This was for a promotional booklet for APCOR (association of Portuguese cork producers), coordinated by the media company who are running the current Mourinho-fronted advertising campaign for cork.

I tend not to turn work down, but this time I said no. I'm writing a book on closures, and I can't be seen to be supporting a particular closure type: by doing this, I'd effectively be endorsing APCOR's campaign. I can't, because I don't beleive in it. It's not focusing on closure performance, and at the last press conference they were still citing the highly dubious taint rate that came from the flawed Wine and Spirit Association Musty Taint Survey. Besides, the wines I would have chosen aren't great wines because of the closure type; they'd be just as good sealed with alternative closures that offer the same oxygen transmission rate. You have to draw the line somewhere. It will be interesting to see which journalists decide to participate in this exercise.