Night in

It's not about the destination, it's about the journey. Three student travellers recount their favourite stories from the long way round

Terry Kirby selects the best bottles to buy.

Paris Saint-Germain's plans to release a house wine should appeal to its new star

Buy on apples, sell on cheese, so the old wine-trade adage goes. If the Himalayan mountains of cheese consumed during the frenzy of January's Burgundy 2011 week in London are anything to go by, a great deal of the region's wine has been sold en primeur before it's even been bottled and delivered. Do you need Burgundy in your cellar? No. Do you want Burgundy in your cellar? Why wouldn't you if you love wine? As Bordeaux alienates with arrogant pricing, Burgundy has grown in stature and popularity with much improved wine quality, more consistent vintages and greater availability.

Night in

Despite furious opposition in France, the European Commission is considering a request from Washington that American producers be allowed to sell wines abroad labelled with spurious château titles. The EC postponed a decision last week, following French protests. But most other EU countries – including Britain – favour a change in the rules.

Wine lovers in Britain and elsewhere in Europe may soon be drinking bottles of Château Dead Man's Gulch or, more likely, Château Napa Valley.

From cases of French plonk to single bottles from the New World, the finest vintages are now only a click away...

The brilliantly-staged annual Bordeaux press and trade tasting week is now a gravy train resulting in the serious boosting of the coffers of the greatest châteaux. Despite staggering prices for their pre-release 2009 vintage, they made hay because the vintage was rated as one of the true greats.

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.

Couch potato

Imagine it's a year from now. The turbulent events of 2012 seem so obvious with the benefit of a rear-view 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.

Oil, gold and fine wine outstripped the FTSE in 2011, the index of the 100 most valuable companies having fallen 5.6 per cent over the year.