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Jean-Marc Brocard started in the wine business with a present of one hectare of vines from his father-in-law. He now has 450 acres and is one of the biggest names and most respected producers in Chablis.

We carry his excellent Chablis in both stores. You can find out more about the estate and the wine by downloading the fact sheet.

In a dramatic landscape surrounded by the Andes mountain range and dominated by the majestic Aconcagua peak, the Cassone family have their vineyards and winery.

Mayor Drummond, in the Southwest of Mendoza, is the name of their region – and it’s considered one of the best in Argentina.

They say that there is hardly a single wine company, or indeed a single person involved in the wine trade in Chile, who has not done business with Alberto Siegel Snr at least once.

It is no exaggeration to say that many winemakers – especially those for whom winemaking has been carried on in the family through generations – have much in common with artists.

They are driven by something within to create the best wine possible from their site.

Maison Champy is the oldest Burgundy negociant house in existence. In fact, created in 1720 by Edme Champy, a Master Cooper in Beaune, it was the first ever Burgundian négociant to be established.

Between the Corbières and Minervois, 12 miles from Carcassonne and 25 from the Mediterranean, the Ferrandière Estate sits on the site of an ancient wetlands.

These wetlands amidst the hills and mountains of the Languedoc were cut off from the sea during the uplift of the Earth’s crust that created the Pyrenees Mountains millions of years ago.

There are not many estates in the whole of France, let alone in the quiet rural district that is Corbières, that can point to a history as and glorious as Fontarèche’s.

It’s first mention in official documents dates back to the year 984 when the Archbishop of Narbonne received two pounds of silver and two ounces oeach year to provide meals for sixteen knights.

At the heart of the Chateau de Pizay estate, surrounded by vineyards, is a beautiful chateau dating back to the 14th Century, which has now been converted into a luxury 4-Star hotel.

If there is one wine that exemplifies what French wine is all about and how it differs from its New World competitors, it must be the one made without oak from the Sauvignon Blanc grape around the village of Sancerre in the Loire Valley.

Big isn’t always beautiful but it often is in Bordeaux, where some of the largest properties on the Left Bank are among the very best.

Think of Chateaux Margaux, Latour and Lafite; they are among the largest properties of all. And big is certainly best when it comes to the region’s co-operative cellars.

The Bortolotti Winery of Valdobbiadene was established in 1947 by oenologist Umberto Bortolotti who, in typical pioneer spirit of post World war II Italy, chose to dedicate himself to his passion for the wine of his native region.

From the vineyards of the Provenza estate you can almost hear the water of Lake Garda lapping onto the shore, so close is this classy wine producer to holiday the haven lake.

The award-winning Santa Sofia estate inhabits an ancient villa dating back to 1560 in Italy’s historic Valpolicella Classico region between Venice and Verona.

With the weight of such history hanging on its shoulders, it would be easy for an estate to lose itself in the past, holding on to traditions and ideas that are no longer of relevance to the modern market.

It’s a golden rule that when looking for wines in Italy you should go for the ‘Classico’ regions; Soave Classico, Bardolino Classico, Valpolicella Classico, Chianti Classico as these are the original hillside sites where time, experience, trial and error decreed that the best grapes came from.

Heather and Meric Davies planted their 60-acre vineyard in Marlborough’s Wairau valley in 1995.

As is often the pattern in Marlborough, for several years they concentrated on the growing and left the winemaking to others, selling their grapes to bigger winemakers.

Grapegrowers and winemakers the world over are becoming more and more conscious of the effect their actions have on the world around us.

There is hardly a quality vigneron these days who is not convinced he is protecting the environment.

BARON DE LEY from its inception in 1985 has never been one to follow the crowd. In fact, it’s delightfully different in a number of ways.

Unlike most of their competitors, they own nearly all of the vineyards from which they get their grapes.