The French call it the Midi, we call it the south. For some reason the English language never equated midday with south, as the French and Italians do. The southern strip of France, just inland of its Mediterranean shores, is where nearly one third of all French wine is made. This isn't the land of 'vignes nobles' of great appellations and famous names, but rather where the gros rouge, the vin ordinaire of the French workman's lunch is grown. This is where quantity has traditionally been more respected than quality.

There's a historical reason for this. Until the twentieth century all vineyards in the Midi were on hills. The decimation caused by phylloxera made the farmers move their vines to the plains and that's where the huge problem of over-production began. Most of the last fifty years have been devoted to persuading the French farmers of the Midi that fewer, but better, grapes is the road to prosperity. Huge lakes of lack-lustre Carignan are increasingly understood as not a way forward.

This has also been traditionally an area where white wines and dessert wines were made. Until the 1970s there were only two AC reds in the Midi, Fitou and the very rare Collioure on the Spanish border. Otherwise the area was known for what the French call Vin Doux Naturel, which despite its name, is made sweet by fortification, rather like Port. Banyuls and Rivesaltes are good examples of the region's dessert wines, and perhaps Blanquette de Limoux serves as an example of the better whites of the region.

The eastern end of the region, the part which borders on the estuary of the Rhone, is the Costieres de Nimes, the very last outpost of the great river, where vines are grown on deep deposits of pebble, giving them an advantage over their neighbours. This large AC of rolling hills stretches for nearly 30 kilometers, running east west between the city of Nimes and the Mediterranean. Like many areas of the Midi it has been replanting in recent years with Mourvedre, Syrah, Grenache and Merlot to replace the once ubiquitous Carignan. Keep an eye on the new and vigorous AC s of the region, like St Chinian, Fitou, Faugeres and Maury.

Wine of the Week

Chateau d'Or et de Gueules, 1998, Costieres de Nimes

The Costieres de Nimes used to be called the Costieres du Gard, where the vast majority of production is of red wine, although there is some white and rose production. New and improved techniques of vinification are being adopted here as elsewhere in the Midi, as more and more areas move away from quantity and search for quality. This wine, now in its fifth year, has really opened out and is now harmonious and well-balanced. It's a blend of Syrah and Grenache with some Carignan, which gives it structure as well as suppleness. Good now, but would certainly age well if allowed.

Available from River Wines Termonfeckin (1850 794 637), The Sky and the Ground Wexford and deVine Wines Letterkenny. RRP €10.99.