At Hong Kong airport for between flights I find my half-finished diary from just five days ago.

It seems a lifetime since. But I can't write about those days.

Here's where I was; "At yesterday's Midi growers get-together near Narbonne there were some older faces amongst all the bright young stars.

Not surprising. I came here first in '71. To meet a small group who were determined to rehabilitate the wines of the Midi.
 
Their leader was an outstanding Bordeaux-trained Oenologist; Henri Dubernet who had given up the soft life of Grand Médoc Estates for the impossibly difficult challenges in what he called French wine's 'Wild Frontier'; the vast, uncharted Midi.
 
(It's still relatively uncharted, and is still the world's largest wine region.)

His son; Marc, who is my age, came to our get together. I really admire Marc. He continues, with his own son, the work begun by his father. They run the most important 'Cabinet' in the area, consultants for so many of the top estates. And whether people employ them or not few would deny they are at the heart of the Midi wine revolution ... slow revolution, but revolution nonetheless.
 
Marc, like the others, is happy with the enormous strides in quality here, but when pressed confesses regret that the area has not yet reached its potential. "Le Probleme Midi" he and others argue is that the wine 'Progressives' (those striving to improve, experiment, create and keep up with non-stop developments in other wine countries, are still greatly outnumbered here by the "Industrials"; who would rather keep on churning out mega volume flavour-lite cheapo brands which they believe can stave off the New World wine onslaught on their markets.

"These people" says Marc "are deluded". So too are the Agriculture Ministres in Paris as they share the same view. Surprisingly, the correct view; that only a return to traditional careful, moderate farming, the Pursuit of Quality and educating the public, will save France's winegrowers is the one held today by Brussels. "Well, well" I say. "Miracles never cease". But Marc should know. Isn't anything to do with wine, here, he doesn't know.

There is, for us, a silver lining to this; all the wines of the Midi remain relatively cheap. Even the bloody good ones. And they ARE just so good, now.

I'm going to set up a blind tasting of our Midi wines alongside some famous and expensive Cru's from Bordeaux. The results will be very interesting. Won't be the first time wine thinking has been turned on its head.

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