I taste, evaluate and am thrilled by wine every single day of my life. One of the first words my daughter Lily mastered was, ‘Wine!’ Now she just points at me and says, ‘Daddy Wine!’ How cool, I am the Daddy of Wine! It’s odd to think I came to wine relatively late in life, thanks to a free tasting offered by Oddbins on South Clerk Street in Edinburgh. I was a student at the time and the chance of a free drink seemed like an excellent prospect. Paul Loveridge – the chap I was with that autumn day in 1994 – contacted me via Facebook recently, and he still remembers it to this day. Apparently, the effect on me was instantaneous and electrifying. Perhaps that’s what made my hair stand on end for so many years and turned me into a Boris Johnson look-a-like. I remember that day pretty clearly, tasting a very simple white French country wine made by the Lurton Brothers from the little known Terret grape that blew my socks off. I reckon it was selling for around £3.29 or so, and it proved to me for life that you don’t have to spend a fortune to enjoy great wine. Ping! It was super-dazzling in its zesty character, and totally set my palate alight. I couldn’t wait to share it with my pals and spread the joy, and I’ve never looked back.

My wine pal and super-sommelier François Bertrand, on the other hand, kicked off his wine career while most of us were still mastering the art of conkers, marbles and kiss-chase. ‘I started very young thanks to my headmaster in Primary School, but I quickly got tired of drinking plonk,’ he says. ‘I wasn’t academic and as a teenager I had to choose between catering and the army. The sommelier’s uniform intrigued me, along with the free alcohol!’

It’s safe to say, he’s never looked back and his career has taken him rocketing through the big names, from Le Gavroche to his current post at Bouchon Breton in the City of London. Since I first started out, the wine industry has changed massively. For example, when I began tasting, the South American section in our wine aisles was tiny, with all South American countries lumped in together.

Now, Chile and Argentina each have their own huge individual presence on the shelves, and the diversity is astonishing. Argentina is storming along with red Malbec that’s amazing with red meat. Try Otra Vida Malbec 2007 (£5.99, Sainsbury’s), and Torrontes – an astonishing aromatic white wine that makes a kinky aperitif, or is magnificent to drink with mild Asian cooking. Check out La Esperanza Estate Torrontes 2007 – again, superb value for just £5.99 (Marks and Spencer). And Chile – blimey! Where to begin? I’ve just spent three months living and working the length and breadth of Chile filming a documentary on the wine revolution going on there – you name it, you can find it in Chile. The country is blessed with every climate under the sun, from the glaciers in the south to the deserts in north, with everything in between. With the cool coastal influence and the Andes Mountains, Chile is truly a winemaker’s paradise. Try Matetic Syrah 2006 (£16.99, Majestic) with its smoky, spicy depth of fruit that puts a lot of French Rhône Syrah to shame. And, for whites, get your chops around the crisp and delicious Limari Sauvignon Blanc (£7.99, Marks and Spencer) – grown in the desert and imbued with a curiously salty tang. Delicious.