The World of Wine: Open to wow A major new cultural district in Vila Nova de Gaia, Porto, dedicated to wine, opened over the summer, making the World Heritage City an even more irresistible destination for wine lovers. Neil Beckett reports Adrian Bridge does not scare easily. And certainly he has to his credit a long string of successes, stretching back to Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, to give him confidence: Sword of Honour winner, conqueror of Everest more than once, and Chief Executive Officer of The Fladgate Partnership, which he has expanded to include not only Taylor’s and Fonseca, but Croft and Delaforce Port, as well as three of Portugal’s finest hotels, The Yeatman, The Vintage House, and Hotel Infante Sagres. But even such a serial high achiever might have been daunted by the prospect of opening a major new cultural complex in Vila Nova de Gaia—including six museums, nine restaurants, bars, and cafés, and several shops—in the middle of a global pandemic that would deprive it of many of the foreign visitors on whom it will rely. Yet when I spoke to him as Chief Executive Officer of the World of Wine (WOW) in June, he was as calm, collected, and positive as usual.