It sounds like a throwback to the colonial era – Old World and New World wines. But there's a very solid reason for this distinction: you have to look at it from the grape's point of view.

The vineyards of the Old World have evolved over 2000 years, each grape finely attuned to its environment. In contrast, the New World's wines have been dismissed as homogenised knock-offs produced by massive corporations, relying on secondary processes for their flavours, and producing the same taste, year after year.

But, like a cheeky kid out-foxing his elders on the latest computer game, the wineries of the New World have hacked through the Old World's complacency and stolen its market out from under it. In a trend that made jaws drop across the heritage vineyards of Europe, the New World's share of the global wine market rose from 10% in 1994 to 24% in 2005, while in the lucrative US market, Southern Hemisphere imports rose from 4% in the 1980s to 30% in 2003.

How could this have happened? How could the upstart wines of the New World be outselling their elders in emerging and established markets alike? The Old World didn't waste time wondering. Instead it leveraged all the power of prestige, technique and history to launch a counter-attack on the newcomers.

Now the two halves of the globe are squaring up for the battle of a lifetime: Asia...