Producer · South West France, France

Château Grinou

Château Grinou is a family estate in Bergerac, in south-west France, centred on the small village of Monestier. Vines have grown here since the Middle Ages.

Guy and Catherine Cuisset have run it for around 35 years, and their sons Gabriel and Julien are the new generation. The brothers took the whole estate organic in 2009. Cover crops such as oats, barley, peas and clover grow between the rows to give the vines free nitrogen and bring in insects.

They have also dropped the usual Guyot pruning on most of the vineyard. Instead the vines grow as a kind of hedge, so each plant carries only the fruit it can manage. It is still a work in progress, and the family are happy to step outside the Bergerac rules to try new things.

£13.99 a bottle