Millesime Bio - getting on the inside at the Outsiders

Ah! The south of France. Who wouldn't want to live down here? The sun, old stones, cicadas... the wine.

So why not make some of the stuff?

Last night at Boris restaurant in the heart of Montpellier, I had the chance to catch up with eleven winemakers who have put their hands into their often deep pockets and have moved to France to do just that.

I wasn't the only one there.

Ruth Simpson from Domaine Sainte Rose moved here from Scotland with her English husband. After globetrotting through the worlds of pharmaceutical marketing and humanitarianism, they have settled in an appellation called Cotes de Thongue where since 2002 they have made a small range of lovely clean wines. They took their time to decide where to live, with choices in Margaret river and New Zealand as well. They were starting a family at the time, and I suspect they wanted a bit of culture for the kids.

The winetasting pressure was so intense that wine writer and photographer Per Karlsson had trouble knowing which receptical to drink from.

Well-known wine publisher Philippe Gaillard was also there, supporting Lidewij van Wilgen, who left the world of advertising in Amsterdam to make wine near St Chinian. An uphill battle for a foreign woman in a world of (let's be polite, here) solidly traditional values. I need to visit her again, as the evening had been such a success it was hard to get to the bottles!

 The full list of winemakers:

Château d'Anglès www.chateaudangles.com

Château de Combebelle www.combebelle.com

Château Rives-Blanques www.rives-blanques.com

Domaine de Calet www.domaine-de-calet.com
Domaine Cébène www.cebene.fr
Domaine Jones www.domainejones.com
Domaine Treloar www.domainetreloar.com

Domaine Sainte Rose www.domaine-sainte-rose.com
Domaine Vella Frontera www.vellafrontera.com
Mas des Dames www.masdesdames.fr

O'Vineyards www.ovineyards.com