At around 40 miles in length, one end in the cool of San Francisco bay, the other in the warmth of the inland, the disneyfied Napa Valley is, it is easy to forget, a superb wine region. And with many superb growers. Having survived Prohibition, it grew from the sixties from a region without about 20 producers into a 200 plus producer area. Sub areas include Stags Leap and Carneros. Overall the valley does best with the Bordeaux grape varieties, especially in areas like Stags Leap, but places like Carneros are good sources of Chardonnay and Pinot for sparkling wines. The valley is full of Parker anointed and consumer acclaimed icons, including, Harlan, Screaming Eagle and Shafer. (CW 23/01/12)

Sonoma runs more or less parallel with Napa but much closer to the coast, which for much of the valley and areas like Green and Russian River in particular means cool climate and a long growing season. For instance our growers at Freeman routinely harvest in October, fully a month after their peers in Burgundy. It is the cold coastal Pacific currents that cause that. Additionally if you are visiting northern California, Sonoma is a little more real and less touristy. (CW 23/01/12)

The coastal strip from San Francisco to Los Angeles in its entirety make up this huge AVA which has quality areas like Monterey and Santa Barbara within it. Mostly bulk wine made here with pockets of quality. (CW 23/01/12)

Oregon was an early entrant into the alternative to Burgundy Pinot Noir rival camp, but then after the so-called breakthrough vintage of 1976 spent years in the doldrums, underachieving. Now it is realising its potential with Pinot Noir and other clones. (CW 23/01/12)

An exciting country with a strong fusion between Latin American and European cultures it has several growing regions of which the best known is probably Mendoza in the Andean foothills. The mountain region is most famous for red wines, especially from Argentina`s signature grape, Malbec, originally from Cahors in SW France. Its most characteristic white is grown further north in Salta and is called Torrontes – a Gewurztraminer like fruit. Newly developing areas for wine include the very southerly, cold and windswept Patagonia, which many hail as a great area to grow Pinot Noir. (CW 23/01/12)