My French became fluent after a 1967 St Estephe a 1974 St Julien and a 1999 Pomerol raided from my Aunt’s cellar in Castets-en-Dorthe to celebrate her 60th birthday. The red wine has kept her young – she’s not looking a day over 40!

Exquisite foie gras/magrets du canard, saucisson, fromages of every type, baguettes, masses of decanted Bordeaux reds, a rampant log fire and the party was on. A delight to meet Jean-Luc Magnac, local winemaker of Passavant – a port style wine made from Merlot. This was beautiful, normally aged 18 months, but he reckons the 2010 vintage is so good it didn’t need the ageing.

The following day, I drove to local vineyard to barrel taste the magnificent 2010 vintage. Tried cab sav/merlot and malbec from the barrel – great colour depth and concentration. The cab sav was a little green peppery, but was assured this is a whopping vintage. Another year to dig deep for the en primeur sale.

The wine flowed all weekend and finished with a harmonica blues duo in cercle du concorde in Castets.