In the space of six months, wine will have taken me to Brazil, China, Korea, Slovenia and a desert in New Mexico – places I never dreamt would be on the itinerary of even the most curious wine writer.

In place of the bordeaux and burgundy of 30 years ago, today’s wine drinker can choose a Chinese wine made with help from an Austrian who used to represent Robert Mondavi’s California wines in Europe, or an Indian one fashioned by Bordeaux’s most famous oenologist. “Almost anywhere in the world you think doesn’t make wine, does now,” says Simon Farr, deputy chairman and wine strategist at Bibendum Wine in London. Already involved in several wine ventures that are global in scope, he is just about to go to Baja, California, to work on a new project with a Mexican who also recently bought vineyards in the Agly Valley in French Catalonia.