The Seventh Earl of Longford was mercilessly lampooned for his trawl of Copenhagen’s red light district. He argued that in the interests of his porn-busting research, he simply had to visit one of the city’s raunchiest nightspots so that Christian morals could be upheld. On the same basis, it could be argued that like the so-called holy fool, I really should visit, not Copenhagen, but Bordeaux and taste the 2011 vintage in barrel next month if only to critique it as not worth buying en primeur, or pre-release. I don’t think so.

It’s deathless prose: 52% cabernet sauvignon, 45% merlot and 3% petit verdot. The bald back label tells you everything and nothing about the 2007 Château Brown, Pessac-Léognan, £25.99, Soho Wine Supply (02076368490), an enticingly spicy, blackcurranty Bordeaux grown in that wears its cloak of oak lightly over a perfectly proportioned body. It’s the 3% petit verdot that’s intriguing.

‘We’re here because we want to be, not because we have to be’, proclaimed Baroness Philippine de Rothschild theatrically, as resplendent in pure imperial purple and ram’s head necklace as Caesar’s wife. The press corps were also there because we wanted to be as we tucked into lasagne of Dorset Crab and Venison Wellington at 2-star Michelin restaurant The Square. Accompanied as it was by a mouthwatering array of wines including a 1996 Sassicaia, a 1953 Vega Sicilia and a 1961 Château Mouton Rothschild, it rapidly turned into a Michelin 4-star lunch.

‘Considering how long it’s taken Europe, the Australian wine regional map has come rapidly into sharp focus in just two decades’. Pontificating on the remarkable progress of Australian wine, I was taken aback when one student asked me if this progress was down to good PR. After just attending the Australia Day wine tasting, the answer was an emphatic no. True, Australia’s PR has been an asset, but the tasting underlined that Australia’s success in becoming the UK’s favourite wine country, with sales of nearly 19 million cases last year, is based on substance rather than form.

I was intrigued by the announcement last month that London’s first specialist Italian wine merchant had just opened with the biggest selection of Italian wines in the country. I could hardly believe it was London’s first. Then I realized that even independents with great Italian selections like Lea & Sandeman and Philglas & Swiggot by no means focus exclusively on Italy.

If you stick to buying your wine in supermarkets, chances are you haven’t yet tripped over a great Burgundy. Burgundy is not something supermarkets tend to excel at. Its small scale, artisan products can be pricey, infuriatingly inconsistent, and difficult to pin down, but the idea that you have to be on a city slicker’s bonus to afford it is wide of the mark.

Ever wondered why riesling is not as popular as chardonnay? Or why pinot grigio is as popular as it is? Could it be because a lot of people like character in their wine but not too much. Riesling is an acquired taste because its thrilling bite is more a challenge compared to the crowd-pleasing delights of chardonnay or pinot grigio.

I was propping up the bar at José’s eponymous tapas bar in Bermondsey when before you can say Rozinante, the barman offered me two red wines to taste, a bobal and a mencia. Not rioja please note but two relatively obscure yet delicious Spanish reds each with their own distinctive personality. I couldn’t resist a glass of Gramona, a cava that’s so refreshing it almost single-handedly redefines Spanish sparkling wine.

The turbulent, not to mention taxing, events of the past year seem so obvious with the benefit of a wing mirror. True we’d already seen wine sales starting to spiral downwards, but isolation from Europe coupled with yet another above inflation tax hike brought gloom if not quite doom to what was left of the high street. The new Oddbins and Wine Racks clung on. George Osborne riffled greedily through our pocket but failed to spot the gaping hole in it.

One of the keys to the dramatic expansion of wine in China was the result of Hong Kong’s newfound status as a global wine hub. On 27 February 2008, John Tsang, the Chief Financial Secretary of Hong Kong’s Treasury, announced the scrapping of the tax on wine in Hong Kong. With an estimated 350 importers today, and the proliferation of air-conditioned warehouses, Hong Kong has become a major supplier of fine wine, both legally and illicitly (China’s duty is 48 per cent to Hong Kong’s zero) to China.