For a decade or so the South of France has been an excellent source of good, everyday drinking reds. There are however some very serious wines made from nobler grapes with better equipment and more oak which are good propositions for laying down for a few years. Our advice is not to get too hung up on the plethora of appellations and vin de pays districts, but concentrate on the producers themselves and the grape varieties.

Growers in the South-West tend to use Merlot, Cabernet and Tannat to make wines in a similar style to nearby Bordeaux, Grenache, Carignan and Cinsaut are the traditional grapes of Languedoc-Roussillon but have been increasingly supplanted by Syrah from the Rhone, Mourvèdre from Provence, Merlot and Cabernet from Bordeaux. Many of the best wines, as is often the case in hotter climates, are made from blends of two, three or even four of these grape varieties.