This New World producer has been at it since the 1650s! As a key provisions stop for ships on the way to what is now Indonesia, The Cape never lacked a market (or 'Drunken Sailors' that nobody knew 'What To Do With'). Add an influx of French Huguenot refugees and a flourishing wine trade can't be too far away.

Got there for the first time a few years ago. It is certainly the most beautiful wine area in the world. And the feeling in the air, the hope, the determination - well, I wasn't surprised they went on to win the World Cup in 1995! Just watch the wines develop.

Reds that were hard and aggressive when we first went there are now, after only a few years, being made soft, fruity and unctuous. Pinotage is rightly claiming its place on the world stage and the Cabernet Sauvignon is benefiting enormously from improved vineyard management.

After so long under apartheid, it's great to welcome South Africa aboard once again.

The great wine success story of the '80s and '90s. That Aussie 'push' and self-confidence has affected, or possibly infected, the whole wine world now (Ozmosis?). I think it's a result of having their wines considered a joke in the '70s, what with M. Python admiring the charms of Château Sheepdip etc.

So they decided to show the bloody Poms a thing or two. Their 'system', if there is one, is to have no preconceptions as to how or where wine should be made (the poor French are burdened with so much wine history). It's even rumoured that Max Schubert - creator of Grange in the 1950s - experimented with Eucalyptus "oak" barrels. The wine was awful, but plenty of other experiments have worked.

Start from the basics, pillage techniques like hygiene and refrigeration from the food industry, set up a severe and honest set of wine competitions and just work bloody hard. It's the sheer work level and attention to detail which so astonishes natives of other lands when an Australian 'Flying Winemaker' drops in their midst.

And this intense passion and Aussie 'give it a go' shines through - from stonking reds to delicate ... well no, perhaps skip delicate ... to stonking whites.

Our first buying trips to Oz, in the 1970s, showed our customers the great potential of their wines. But it shouldn't have been surprising that they were getting the hang of winemaking - vines arrived with the First Fleet in 1788. Since our first trips Down Under we've been forging direct links with some of Australia's finest producers to bring you a regular supply of the country's most enjoyable wines.

Nothing like Australia and, by European standards, nowhere near it (1,600km of ocean separate the two countries).

A timid industry when I first went, now quietly (how different from Oz!) confident it can make whites as good as any in the world. A cooler climate and a strong maritime influence both help.

My best friend there, Ernie Hunter, a boy from Belfast who ended up making the best white wine in the country, died tragically young, but we have established some exciting new contacts.

Reds are coming along, but there are still only a handful that can shake the dominant New World powers of Australia, South Africa and Chile. We'll keep you informed!