Just outside Henley-on-Thames, in the Newton Business Park, there is a very fine and, I have to say, brave, wine merchant. Lake Wines is owned and run by Adrian Lake, a man who fervently believes that French wines are indisputably the world's best.

His wine list is proudly French, primarily sourced from Burgundy and the Rhone Valley and there are only a tiny handful of wines at under £6 (the price under which the majority of wines in the UK are bought).

In the early 1970s, Adrian (pictured) spent six months working at a Burgundian vineyard. By his own admission it was a disappointingly short stay, but long enough for him to fall head over heels in love with the country, the Burgundy region and its wines. His passion for these wines has never faltered and three years ago he put three decades of wine trade expertise to the best possible use by setting up his own company.

His office-cum-store is squeezed somewhere between a car garage and a firm of architects and has absolutely none of the trappings you might expect. There is no window display, no blackboard showing details of the latest arrivals and I suspect, quite often no Adrian, unless you call first to let him know you are on your way.

However, once you do make it through the door there are some excellent signs that will gladden the heart of any wine-savvy shopper. Several opened and slightly depleted bottles are strewn across the desk, meaning there is a lot of tasting going on here. It is a good indicator that he is on top of his stock and continually searching. Then there is Adrian himself, whose unashamed love of French wines makes for fascinating listening.

Just after I arrived, a customer popped in (he was conveniently having his car serviced at the next door garage) and I happily ear-wigged on a conversation that had Adrian pick out several bottles and discuss in earnest the vintage, the producer and the style of each. This is a man who really does know his stuff.

I ask him to pick out a couple of personal favourites. The first is an AOC St. Aubin 1er Cru Sous La Roche Daumay 2003 from Doamine Jean-Marc Boillot (£15.95), which he says is admired for its rich, fat style. In contrast (and I believe to his preference) is the AOC Puligny Montrachet 2002 from Jean-Claude Bachelet (c. £18), which he describes as being elegant, with crisp acidity and a citrus quality and good concentration of fruit.' I couldn't help but ask if he isn't a tad fearful of having a wine list so heavily dominated at the £10 plus price point. Not at all, he replies, he is only interested in selling the very best wine and sees little point in selling a bottle of wine at £7 that he considers to be only okay', when he knows that there is something ten times better at only a couple of pounds more.

We taste a bottle of AOC Mcon Ig, Chteau London 2004, Domaine Fichet. This is a delicious chardonnay with great clarity of fruit, perfect acidity and an elegant finish. At £8.95 it's really quite a steal and I can't help but agree that it has a finesse and style about it that isn't always evident in New World chardonnay.

But surely it's hard to persuade people to stop buying from the Tesco store a few hundred yards down the road? Well yes, I think it probably is. But Adrian's one-man crusade to bring the pleasure of fine French wines to a wider audience is meeting with some success.

He tells me that people, tired of the limited supermarket selection, do stop by and once they do, they remain committed. He is able to offer a personal service; hand-picking the wines for each and every customer. I suspect itis a much lower-risk strategy than buying blind from a supermarket shelf, because the bottle you end up taking home is likely to taste just exactly as Adrian described it.

There is sometimes an unreasonable reluctance to buy French wines and so I asked Adrian to recommend a wine that would convert the doubter.

I came away with a bottle of AOC Givry Domaine du Moulin Neuf 2003, which was generously scented, full of flavour and very attractive indeed. At £10.95 it is well-priced and deserves to be drunk and considered, not glugged and forgotten.

I'm keen to avoid making any recommendations from Adrian's list. The best advice is this go and see him for yourself, tell him your likes and dislikes and leave the choosing to him. I doubt you'll be disappointed.

Lake Wines, Newton Business Park, Henley-on-Thames, RG9 1HG. Tel: 01491 411100 E-mail: wines@adrianlake.com