Working in a vineyard is hard work and very time consuming. I have a cousin in Italy called Cesidio Tullio who devotes all the free time he has to working his vines and planting new ones. Currently he has some five hectares planted, mostly in Cabernet Sauvignon, two hectares are in full production, the other three are still maturing. For him it's a labour of love, not a commercial venture, but he's a good example of what happens in wine-producing countries across Europe. Small holders have always made wine, mostly for their own consumption, but whatever surplus there may be is useful for barter.

Like everyone else in my village who makes wines, his production is variable. It's always good wine, but some years it's much better than others. That's not always much to do with the season's weather, sometimes the variations occur in the actual wine-making process. If you make wine in a small cantina with fairly basic technology you can be subject to all kinds of chemical and biological contaminations that affect the wine. The more you can control the environment in which you make the wine, the more control you have over the style of the eventual wine that you make. But that's the problem; to create a controlled environment means investing in a lot of expensive high-tech equipment, which no small producer can do. The solution in most of Mediterranean Europe was the wine co-operative, which operates on much the same principles as farmers' dairy co-operatives do here.

The effect of the co-operatives has been to steadily increase the quality of the wines that they make - by encouraging their members to plant particular varieties of vines, to prune them in the same way and to harvest their grapes at the same time. By doing this they have been able to produce wines with a particular character and style that can be associated with the area of production. In some areas of Europe this improvement in quality was quicker and more effective than in others. For many years Southern France produced huge quantities of wine, mostly for internal consumption and mostly cheap vin de table. However, the economics of this strategy are hard to maintain. The amount of effort and cost that goes into making a basic table wine is not much different from making a better wine that can be sold at a significantly higher price. Which is why the producers from areas that contributed to the European wine lake are now focusing their efforts on moving upmarket.

The Languedoc fits this pattern well. Once it produced astonishing quantities of wine, as much as 20,000 litres per hectare, and was a major contributor to the wine lake. Now it has real stars. Aime Guibert has been a prime mover for many years now, making fine wines and changing the perception of the Languedoc. His flagship wine, Mas de Daumas Gassac has been compared to Lafite and can age easily to twenty-five years or more. It's an extraordinary wine made mostly of Merlot and it sells her for around £25 a bottle.

Wine of the Week

Moulin de Gassac 'Elise' 1998

Made by Aime Guibert, this is a second wine, also made predominantly from Merlot. Nicely presented in the bottle, it's very full on the palate with a deep red colour. Slightly higher in alcohol than usual at 12.5%.

Available in O'Brien's off-licenses at £7.95.