Our most recent trip, a whirlwind tour that involved many hours behind the wheel, took us from Ossian's sandy, pre-phylloxera vineyards in Rueda, up to the wild west of Ribera del Duero, up and futher across to San Vicente in Rioja and then finally all the way east to Catalonia and the hot, dry hills of Priorat.

En route we encountered breathtaking countryside, big skies and huge vistas, soaring buzzards, warm people, old vines and low yields, plenty of delicious ham and even more delicious wine. In what feels like Hemmingway country there are wines being made that offer such pure, ripe, complex, silky seduction it is amazing they are not more highly sought after over here in the UK market.

A tasting and dinner with friends in the cosy surrounds of the Traveller's club library, the focus of the evening was 1996 Barolo and 2001 Riesling from Germany. These areas being two of my great loves, after Burgundy, I grabbed the chance with both hands.

After a solid, reliable glass of Pol Roger Brut Reserve I attacked a flight of Kabinetts and Spatlesen. The tastebuds were well and truly tantalised, perhaps more than at any other point in the evening. Wehlener Sonnenuhr Kabinett from JJ Prum pleased immediately with its powerful savoury and gold-flecked fruit character, the Spatlese was of course richer but even livelier and beautifully seamless, Muller's Scharzhofberg Spatlese was typically smoky and searingly intense, an electric wine, however the wine of the flight, and indeed the whole evening was Brauneberger Juffer Sonnenuhr Spatlese from Fritz Haag. Though I was not the only one, neither was it everyone's top choice. The extremely high slate content of the vineyard means it won't ever be as forthright and powerful as JJ Prum and Muller's will always be more vital than almost any other Riesling. What the Haag offered, however, was great refinement, beauty and poise. We were lucky enough to continue with the wines over our starter, and it was the only glass I kept going back to.

This is not, it would seem, the most auspicious start to a buying trip to the Loire. But fortunately, for me and our Loire offer, my lot improved straight off the bat at our very first tasting the next morning.

The mighty Loire, France's longest river, rises in the Cévennes and travels over 1000km heading first north and then west before reaching the Bay of Biscay and the Atlantic at St Nazaire. It would make a very fine bike ride. As it turns north-west and then west it plays host to one of the most diverse and perhaps underappreciated of France's great "wine regions". From the Marl and Kimmeridgean clay soils of Sancerre and the flinty, Silex strewn slopes of Pouilly Fumé via the Cabernet Franc friendly regions of Chinon, Bourgeuil and Saumur Champigny through dry, sweet and sparkling Chenin Blanc in Vouvray, Montlouis Anjou and Savennieres, right the way back to Sauvignon in Touraine and finally the Oyster partnering Muscadet towards its mouth. There is much to get excited about and many stellar domaines making world class wines at eminently affordable prices.

It is a Domaine I have been keeping an eye on for some time now with ever increasing interest but I was simply bowled over when tasting the final 2010 blends in Burgundy this Spring. After practising the profession of wine broker for seven years, Christophe Perrot-Minot took over his parent’s estate in 1993. As well as providing renewed vigour and a perfectionist’s approach to the winemaking, Christophe also succeeded in expanding the Domaine substantially by buying out the famous Pernin-Rossin estate in Vosne-Romanée, starting with the 2000 vintage. It took Christophe a while to find his way but in the last 5 years he seems to have settled on a style and really perfected it. The wines are ripe have a modern polish without losing their purity and combine intensity with elegance. They are far removed from the more structured Pinots of the Domaine’s early days. It seems that Burghound agrees, giving Perrot Minot some rave reviews over the last two vintages.