The wines of the South West are rich in variety and youth. What we do when you come to us is to show you how this applies to the South West.

Here in the South West there is much youth in the viti/vinicultural world conducive to energy in creating wines that are not only typical of the terroir of a particular domaine but also wines that are quite unique and innovative. Take for instance the wine of Robert Plageoles at Gaillac and his 'mauzac nature'. This is a sparkling wine dating back to the precursors of the Dom Pérignon style; a jewel of light persistent bubbles, subtle sweetness and yeasty nose.

Then there is the 'vin moelleux' of Jean-Luc Baldès at Cahors. Who would ever have guessed that underneath all that black wine, for which Cahors is so famous, lies a little bottled gold made from the 'pourriture noble' of chenin blanc grapes?

Also the delicious Don Quichotte of Domaine Le Roc. A wine black with pigeage and made from a blend of Negrette and Syrah. These Fronton wines leave a delicious slightly bitter chocolate after taste. Distinctive, stylish and delicious.

And so it goes on.

I love it. The only thing that goes against the grain is the persistence of changing the design of bottle labels. I do find that a label is one's primary familiarity to a bottle. One could say it was rather like a girl changing the colour of her hair:

1.She gets upset with you for not having recognised her.
2. She is no longer familiar and therefore you have to start all over again - and you never know ... you might not enjoy it so much the second time!

And so with wine and the labels keep changng.

So the wines carefully selected for your weeks walking will be there to give you an idea of the variety and consistent quality from this part of France. An art also is finding food to compliment the wine and vice versa. We hope that with fourteen years experience we have got that just right. The invitation is for you to come and see if you agree!

Our children are getting very knowledgeable about wine. This has come about by careful nurturing of their olfactory systems. Each time I have a glass of wine in my hand and the children are near, I say: "Now, tell me what you think this one smells of" and with great aplomb they take the glass, swill it around and sniff. "Wine" is what they say. "Anything else … blackberry perhaps?" I ask. "No, no, just wine" they say. Well, it is a start, and at the ages of ten and nine I think there is still hope.

I think I started with wine when I was sixteen. It was something that I had never really enjoyed before but, like with girls, I had felt that there was something definitely worth while there … I just couldn't see what. My father had decided it was time for wine for his son and the place was to be Rules, that bastion of the Englishness of English cuisine. Roast beef on the plate and a Léoville Barton '66 in the glass. I knew it was important and big and with my first sip I knew that I didn't really like it. Wine was not for me. Not as easy as beer but somehow it did go rather well with the meat. Of course now the palate has matured but I think I probably fared as well as my children do now with me. I enjoyed the experience though and as Léoville Barton is now our wine for extra special occasions this only goes to confirm my belief that wine is not just what is inside the bottle but has as much to do with where you are and who you are with.

Moving on to more serious fare, I read somewhere that the top one hundred wines in the world would always be French. I then thought: "Can this really hold true today?" All one hears now is that, for decent drinking wine, Australian and Chilean reds for example are streets ahead of the frenchies. In olden days a glimpse of a wine list would show that eighty per cent of the wines would be French: shocking! Nowadays anything goes. In fact you would be lucky to find twenty per cent that would be French. So to the question: would the top one hundred wines in the world always be French? I would wriggle around it like a politician and say this: that if one said that France has the greatest acreage in the world in quality of wine one might be getting nearer to the truth. Or, maybe, if one is talking about the most 'collected' wines, you might feel that, in the top hundred wines, there is little space left for the New World to fit in to.

The ' New World ' has posed a problem for this, the once greatest of all wine countries. It must be said though that France has for quite a while been looking to 'flying' wine makers from the New World to improve the quality of their wine. Not so much as before though as now many viniculteurs are working hard on a move away from the Robert Parker flock of easy drinking oaky wines to those that are more atypical and with more influence of terroir. The goal for many French winemakers is to attract those people who are looking for a distinct style of wine that comes from a particular model of viticultured earth, and which is made by a particular wine-maker. The style of the wine is all important. The problem is of course that most people just enjoy wine for wines sake and maybe it is this attitude that makes the French market suffer. Market Research perhaps would be the answer to the problem for the middle market winemaker. The rub lies in the arrogance of the French. It is kneaded into the blood. They cannot see that to listen to consumer needs can be beneficial to sales. Having lived now in France for fourteen years we can still see how this philosophy of 'like it or lump it' is prevalent in whatever field one wishes to mention.

It is therefore understandable that France will still have a problem for a while as the New World mass co-operative way of making wine is faultless in this respect. The professionalism of the New World has shocked them. Clear easy-to-read labelling and a guaranteed quality of consistency of taste makes this wine almost as easy to drink as Coca-Cola. The Appellation system makes it difficult for the French to compete. Having said that though it is maybe because of this system that France can achieve the typicity they are looking for and the hope is that the swing in taste will come back towards the wines of more depth and subtley and then the winemakers of the New world will have to look to their laurels.

As you are here in the southwest we want to introduce you to the wines that may not be so easily available across the Channel or elsewhere in the big wide world and which distinctly fit into the 'typicity' style. Cahors of course will take a major part in our happy consumption. It is a wine made up of a minimum of seventy percent auxerrois (better known elsewhere maybe as malbec or cot). The other thirty percent can be made of either auxerrois, merlot or tannat or a mix of any of these. We will try various concoctions to see how they differ.

COTES DE BERGERAC The most prolific of vignobles of the south west France outside Bordeaux and closest in character to Bordeaux itself in that it uses similar cépages.

MONBAZILLAC Ancient vignoble renowned for centuries. There is a higher proportion of Muscadelle to Sauternes which gives it a quality contribution and which gives it its particular individuality. A slight lack in finesse in comparison maybe but Andrew Jefford says that it makes up for that in 'honeyed volume and succulent, thrashing power'.

SAUSSIGNAC An exciting satellite appellation. One wine from this appellation has been compared by Robert Parker to 75°/° Climens 25°/° Rieussec. It may not be quite as luscious as its neighbour Monbazillac but it can have better acidity. Interesting.

CAHORS Regarded by many as the top producer of reds in the south west. A great red from the Malbec grape and with more typicity than the Argentine equivalents. It compliments the rich cuisine of the area to the enth degree and has recently been voted the most inspired appellation of France due to some great ideas from the young winemakers here.

MADIRAN Great things happening here under the flag of Alain Brumont and others. Regarded also by many as the appellation that produces the best reds of the south west! These are high tannic reds coming from Tannat grapes and an addition of Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon and Fer Servadou. Not to be drunk as an aperitif! This is a wine that will compliment all the riches that the South West gastronomy has to offer. It needs time and food.

IROULEGUY The pride of the Basques. An ancient wine dating back to the creations of the pilgrimage of Saint Jacques de la Compostelle. A similar cépage to Madiran with the greater part of the wine consisting of the Tannat grape though the two greatest exponents of
Irouleguy beg to differ over this. One claiming that Tannat has very little to do with the end product!

JURANCON Absolutely delicious sweet wines being produced here at the foothills of the Pyrenees. No noble rot, just late picked Petit Manseng on the whole. Vines are trained 'en hautais' to prevent the pockets of freezing mist ruining the crop. The flagship domaine is Domaine Cauhapé.

FRONTON Sometimes still known as Côtes du Frontonnais. Our favourite red simply because it is so well priced and delicious. Regarded as the Beaujolais of the South West but having an unusual taste from its cépage of Negrette.

COTEAUX DU QUERCY Some lovely reds coming from this satellite appellation of Cahors. Primarily made from Cabernet Franc it can have a lovely balance of fruit and tannins.