Old world

France

Think of wine and it won't take long for your thoughts to turn to France. With swathes of vineyards and excellent growing conditions, it produces some of the world's finest wines. Plus, whether you're planning on driving or flying, getting to France's wine regions from Britain is very straightforward.

For beginners the Champagne region is a great place to start tasting. Don't be put off by the glitz and glamour (and the price tag) of champagne because as a wine-producing region it has a lot to attract a novice. Not only is it easy to visit but, more importantly, it's small enough for you to visit several vineyards in a day so that, if time is short, you still get to try a great deal of champagne, more than enough for you to gain a better understanding of what goes into the champagne process and to appreciate why no two champagnes taste quite the same.

A weekend in the region with the aptly named Grape Escapes (grapeescapes.net, £219 including ferries, lunch, vineyard entrance and two nights' accommodation) starts with an introduction to champagne production before taking you around the vineyards. Your tour will include a trip to one of the more prestigious houses, but it also takes you to some of the lesser known producers to try champagnes from smaller but still impressive winemakers such as Bonnaire. In the evenings, you're free to explore the local restaurants and test out your newly acquired wine knowledge.

If you're looking for a slightly longer trip, the Loire region of France has many advantages. It's home to some excellent wines, such as the fine, crisp, citrus-scented sancerre, or the lightly fruited vouvray, but there are 67 different appellations - that is, distinct traditional wines made in a particular area - to tempt your tastebuds. And with its beautiful chateaux, including the Chateau d'Usse, said to be the inspiration for the castle in Charles Perrault's Sleeping Beauty, there is plenty to do in the valley if you get tired of drinking.

Loire Wine Tours (winedineloire.com) offers a week's stay in a family-run, 12th-century manor for £1,650 per couple near the city of Angers, in the heart of the Loire Valley. It includes breakfast, dinner and transport to all the vineyards, though not flights. On most days the tour includes three vineyards and, over dinner in the evenings, you get to drink the wines you've tasted during the day, accompanied by specially selected local food cooked by your friendly - and knowledgeable - hosts.

Spain

Though France is a popular destination for wine lovers, it is not to everyone's taste and, with Spain and Italy producing some top-class wines, these countries are worth serious consideration. Spain, in particular, is going through a wine revolution at the moment: new world winemakers are bringing their skills to traditional Spanish varieties and are producing excellent, fruit-driven wines, better suited to Britain's easy drinking palate. There are many wine-producing regions in Spain but perhaps one of the easiest and most enjoyable to visit is La Rioja, home to what is arguably Spain's finest wine.

Within the area there are endless variations on the wine because the way it is produced and the way that the grapes are blended together differ from winemaker to winemaker. Some vineyards prefer it rough and ready while others prefer something more elegant and stylish, so to enjoy the region at its best, try to taste wines from as many different producers as you can, then you'll come back with a better sense of what you like and why.

You can visit the Rioja region with Brittany Ferries (brittany-ferries.com), staying at the luxurious three-star Villa de Abalos hotel near Laguardia. Set amid vineyards and with a highly respected restaurant attached, it's a relaxing place to base yourself while you venture out to the surrounding wine country. A six-night stay for two people with bed and breakfast, including a standard ferry journey for one car, starts at £776.

Italy

For those who prefer Italian food and wine there are plenty of options too. Unlike in most European countries, grapes grow virtually everywhere in Italy, but it's often best to limit yourself to one region: that way the wine you drink and the food you eat will almost always complement each other. Arblaster and Clarke (arblasterandclarke.com) runs several trips to Italy throughout the year, each one exploring a different wine region and its accompanying cuisine.

Arblaster is a world-renowned company and its expertise shows in the tours, so whether you visit the relatively unknown but richly varied Puglia in the far south or Piedmonte in the north, home to that rich, muscular wine barolo, you can expect to enjoy fine wines, sumptuous hotels and top-notch restaurants.

The tour guides are all experts (most are Masters of Wine, the equivalent of having a doctorate in the wine world) but they are very happy to help out if you're a novice, and by the end of your tour you will know the wines you tasted very well. Tours to Italy start from £699 for three days including accommodation and flights.

New world

South Africa

These days new world wines grace most people's dinner tables and rightly so: they offer great value and flavour. If you fancy something a bit further afield, South Africa is a good choice, particularly if you want to get your wine-tasting fix and still enjoy a family holiday. There's a good variety of wines available, with sauvignon blanc, chenin blanc, pinot noir, merlot and the native pinotage all growing well in the climate.

Audley Travel (audleytravel.com) arranges luxury tours around the winelands from £2,095 per person, including flights to Cape Town, four nights' accommodation in the city, three nights' B&B in the beautiful town of Franschoek, two nights at the Amakhala game reserve and car hire.

Franschoek is a great place to base yourself for a wine tour, and from there you can either hire a car or arrange a guide to give you a tour of the vineyards. First on your list should be the excellent Cabriere Estate, where the winemakers produce both a straight pinot noir and a couple of very drinkable sparkling wines. Tours here have grown in popularity, largely through word of mouth, thanks to the eccentricity of the vineyard owner. Every day at one o'clock he opens bottle after bottle of his Pierre Jourdan fizz by cracking their necks with a French sword.

In the evening you can return to Franschoek and explore its excellent restaurants (and, of course, their wine lists). And once you've finish with the wine you can head out on a safari for some wildlife spotting.

Australia

If there is one country in the world that has made us re-examine the way we think about wine, it is Australia. For a lot of aficionados, New World wine is Australian wine. Australia grows an enviable range of grapes (all the major ones grow well somewhere in Australia) and, frankly, when you're drinking a lusciously dark Barossa Valley shiraz or a crisp, lemon-sharp Clare Valley riesling, it's easy to forget that old world wines exist. Australia was also one of the first countries to realise that tourists want to visit vineyards so, if you want to explore, there are hundreds of wineries that will welcome you with open arms.

But as far as Matt Skinner, sommelier at Fifteen and author of The Juice 2007 is concerned, Margaret River is probably the best region to visit. 'Some of the best wines in the country come out of there and it's picturesque too,' he says. You can visit Margaret River with Bridge and Wickers (bridgeandwickers.co.uk) and prices start from £455 per person. The tour (excluding flights) includes five nights' bed and breakfast (two days in Perth, two days on the Cape Lodge wine estate and one night in Swan valley), a full day's tour of Margaret River with expert guides, plus three days' car hire, so you will be able to do plenty of exploring on your own.

New Zealand

Twenty years or so ago new world wines meant Australian and American; back then hardly anyone had heard of New Zealand wines. But, almost from nowhere, a few small producers put the country on the map when they started selling their sauvignon blanc wines. These wines were so good that the wine world was forced to stand up and take notice. Today New Zealand's sauvignon blancs are famous for their fruity, zesty, almost tropical taste and wine production has really taken off with some pretty good pinot noirs, especially from the Otago region, and pinot gris joining the Kiwi catalogue.

Arblaster and Clarke again arranges regular trips to New Zealand that take in both north and south islands. During your stay you'll visit some of the most famous wineries including Cloudy Bay, which was one of the first producers to show what New Zealand could do with wine. It's a luxurious trip (all accommodation is four star) and not only will you get the chance to sample lots of wine from numerous vineyards, you'll also get to enjoy special meals either in the wineries or at selected local restaurants where you'll be able to explore food and wine combinations. Arblaster and Clarke is running a trip from 3-19 February next year for £3,449 per person including flights, accommodation and some meals.

South America

You can't walk into a supermarket these days without seeing shelves of wine from South America. Like Australia a few years ago, Chile has cornered the less-than-a-fiver market and churns out a serious amount of good value, good flavour, drink-in-front-of-the-TV wine. Merlot, cabernet sauvignon and syrah have all taken root there, and grow well in the high-altitude vineyards alongside native grapes like carmenere. And, despite having the reputation as a budget drinker's favourite, Chile makes some world-class wines that the old world has not been able to ignore.

Over the border in Argentina, the malbec grape has really come into its own and the wines made from this Bordeaux grape have proved what Argentina is capable of. These days you can also expect to find plenty of merlot, cabernet sauvignon and, thanks to a recent interest in Italian varieties, some barbera too. With vineyards overlooking some of the world's most spectacular scenery, it is an awe-inspiring region to visit.

Arblaster and Clarke's 2007 tours cover Argentina, Chile and the up-and-coming Paraguay. Again you can expect a luxurious, five-star tour that will take you to some of the finest hotels and restaurants in South America and shows you well-known vineyards as well as a few that you may not - yet - have heard of. Tours cost £2,999 per person and include internal flights, five-star accommodation, 13 meals and all wine tastings.