Check out wine ratings, but also trust your taste

THE first issue of Robert Parker's Wine Advocate that landed on my desk put the spotlight on 1982 Bordeaux, which had just been released.

This was before the days of the Internet, so the hunt for wine took place via fax or telephone. One had to call wine merchants in London, and, expensive as long-distance calls were, they were the only quick way of contact at the time.

A memory that remains etched in my mind is that of my conversation with the managing director of Corney & Barrow, one of London's oldest and most respected wine merchants - in those days, they were practically royalty.

He had seemed impressed that I was enquiring about the availability of Château Petrus 1982, which had just been released en primeur. I might have been his first customer from Singapore, and one who was asking …