I didn’t mean to buy a vineyard in France (maybe you never do), I just drove past this little 18th century chateau with its turrets, tower and battlements and it sort of called out to me. Sounds daft, I know, but this weird and irresistible urge made me stop the car and knock on the door. Events just steam-rollered after that and a couple of days later Chateau Gourgues was mine. It could have all gone horribly wrong but I haven’t had a single regret. In fact it’s turned out to be one of the most wonderful things in my life. From the balconies you can see the spires of St-Emilion – one of the oldest and most celebrated wine centres in the world – and wherever you look every inch of earth is covered with rows and rows of neat green vines. The views are astonishingly magical.

Nestled in a sleepy village called Grezillac deep in the Bordeaux appellation this is fine wine country where Merlot, Semillon and Cabernet Sauvignon grapes flourish in the moist clay, gravel and limestone soil. Our red has a spicy freshness, full body and smooth finish. The whites are crisp, bright and light and the rose always charms with its smooth fruity flavours and easy drinking. My mate, Jamie Oliver, has got through several cases and with his usual brilliance said my 2006 rose was ‘top tasting and great value’. Which was strangely profound really, because a few months later that same rose won a Commendation award in the 2008 London International Wine Challenge. The biggest and most prestigious blind tasting in the world had selected my rose out of thousands of others. There’s me, a complete wine newcomer standing next to all these posh chateaux owners, proudly clutching my certificate thinking, this has got to be a wind up. But it wasn’t.

If I’m honest, I didn’t know what a special little corner of France I’d bought because Chateau Gourgues has won a quite a few of awards over the years. The Concours de Bordeaux Vins d’Aquitaine gold medal in 1998, a bronze in 2000 another gold in 2003 and two more bronzes in 2004 and 2005. And we’ve just got another one for the 2005 red. This quiet success is due to the simple way we make our wine. Patrick Gresta and his son Yannick tend the sixty acres using traditional methods and much of the work is done by hand. Early every morning the ancient tractors rumble out and they work incredibly long hours tending the vines with an impossible devotion. They won’t use anything but oak barrels, spend months waiting for exactly the right moment to start bottling and talk to me sternly about not ‘stressing the wine’.

Then, when the time is right the 83-year-old grandmother arrives in a ratty old mink coat pulling a sulky cat on a velvet lead. With a flourish she sips and spits – pauses theatrically – and with a gap-toothed grin, gives the thumbs up. The bottling begins and Chateau Gourgues continues its 160 year-old tradition of wine making.