What do a bottle of wine and the Burj Khalifa have in common?

The Burj Khalifa proves you don't need technical expertise to recognise brilliance, just as with great wine.

The life of a Platter Guide taster might seem glamorous, but for two months or more the reality is that the team trips over scores of bottles and cases of wine being assessed. The consequence of high-volume tasting is that each bottle has just one sample removed, and the rest of it is set aside to make room for the next flight. Neighbours, friends and even random strangers benefit gratefully from samples that are freely given away.

One recent Saturday friends came over to watch a Springbok rugby game, and I airily waved a hand at about 24 bottles and said: “Help yourselves.” They’re not massive wine drinkers, but it was interesting to enjoy a “fly on the wall” moment and watch what they chose and how they reacted.

Reflecting later, it made me think about a documentary I’d seen about the construction of the Burj Khalifa in Dubai. It’s a stunning building: dramatic, spectacular and instantly recognisable – but I had no idea just how amazing the engineering behind it was.