A lot has been written over the years about the Irish flight to Bordeaux. Young bloods from aristocratic families that ended up leaving their names across the board of the drinks business: the negociants Bartons of Barton and Guestier, Richard Hennessy in Cognac, the Bartons of Langoa and Leoville and the Chateaux names like Lynch, Palmer, Kirwan, Boyd and O'Brien. But there has been a recent flight as well with high-profile names like Lorcan Quinn buying Chateau Fieuzal and purchases by Paddy McKillen and Tony Ryan. You could argue that this latest flight into wines was spear-headed by David O'Brien and his wife Catherine back in the early nineties.

David had already had a successful career in horse training like his father before him when he and Catherine decided to change to viticulture, deciding eventually to buy Vignelaure in southern France. Chateau Vignelaure came to prominence in the 1960s when Georges Brunet, who had sold Chateau La Lagune, decided to create a Bordelaise style wine in Provence, settling at Vignelaure between Rians and Jouques. Initially he planted 28 hectares of the 100 hectare estate, 60% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Syrah and 10% Grenache. Until the mid 80s M. Brunet made his wine, gradually increasing the area under vine and refurbishing the two-storey chateau, but the last years were years of decline. During the late 80s and early 90s it changed hands a few times, mostly to absentee landlords, but from 1994 it found a new lease of life under the stewardship of David and Catherine.

Travelling around the estate in February, a weak sun low in the sky, we looked at the bare, pruned vines, pruned low to the ground in a goblet shape - a classic Provencal technique - and admired the almost fanatical perfection of the groomed vineyards. Neatness seems to be a factor in wineries as well as in stud farms. 'I've planted grass between the vines,' David told me as we drove through various parcels, 'it tends to stress the vines a bit and we get better fruit.'

Vignelaure produces a very fine rose called 'La Source', which keeps winning prizes as well as a second wine which is sold under the 'Nijinsky' label - an homage not to the ballet dancer, but to the horse that graces the label. A new addition to the stable is a Merlot varietal, a very full-bodied wine with an imperial purple colour that's supple and lithe. But it's the first wine, the Chateau Vignelaure that's the flagship and the one that has had the bulk of David's attention.

Wine of the Week

Chateau Vignelaure 1998

Now the vines at Vignelaure have aged and the effect has been a smaller production (only 34 hl per hectare) but with a greater intensity of fruit. The wine is predominately Cabernet Sauvignon, with some Syrah and Grenache, which is fermented in steel and then aged in new oak barrels where the malolactic fermentation takes place. It will age easily for another 10 years, although it and the 1999 can be drunk now.

Available McCabes, O'Briens, Claudio's and independent off-licenses. RRP €18.99