Buying Charentais Wine

For the last ten years we've bought most of our wine from the same local producer. "Poncerau de Haut" is a traditional, family-run business which regularly wins medals for its red, white and pink wines.

You still go into their barn to choose your wine and, in the old days, there was usually a cat asleep on the counter, next to a pile of dusty leaflets advertising local 'attractions'. Now they're fully computerised with a Facebook page and loyalty card. But at least the wine hasn't changed, thank God.

Vin Charentais isn't so different from Bordeaux wine: it comes from the other side of the Gironde estuary but there are no prestigious names like Margaux or Mouton Rothschild to roll off the tongue and up the price... just good, quaffable vino at about 25 euros for ten litres. (Yes, I'm afraid we buy vin rouge in a box these days!)