On a recent visit to Kendal's Serpentine Woods, I was greeted by the sweet pungency of the wild garlic that carpets the ground at this time of year, writes Derek Kingwell.

I have written about this food for free' before and I strongly suggest you take advantage of it. The leaves of wild garlic are dark green, shiny and, when gently rubbed, leave a lingering sweet garlic scent on your fingers. It is best to wash twice, dry and use as soon as possible as it tends to wilt fairly quickly.

Owner of Kendal's Dj-vu restaurant Fran Wood and French head chef Fabien Bellouere are firm believers in utilising local produce and regularly create mouth-watering Serpentine wild garlic dishes during its short season.

When I popped into Dj-vu on my way back from the woods with my bag of fresh green goodies to seek some wine-matching inspiration, a Wild Garlic and Roasted Jerusalem Artichoke Soup was already on the menu. It's not often wine is the best partner for a soup but when it's as concentrated and delicious as this with chunks of hot bread then my first and only thought was a good Vins de Pays.

Vins de Pays, in particular Vins de Pay d'Oc, is one of the great wine success stories.

Vin de Pays means, in official' terms, French Country Wine', a very traditional and evocative phrase conjuring up images of the rural southern idyll - you know the one, happy people relaxing in golden fields on red and white chequered picnic blankets enjoying a natural feast of local wine, bread and cheese.

In reality, Vin de Pays is the second tier of the French quality hierarchy and the category just above basic vin de table. However, it allows innovative winemakers, especially in the south, flexibility to try new grape varieties and techniques. So, in real' quality terms, a good Vin de Pays may outpace a supposedly better appellation d'origine contrle (AOC) wine from the same area.

Since this category was created in 1968 it has transformed the quality of French wine at the wrongly perceived less glamorous end. Nowhere is this more deliciously apparent than in the vast Languedoc (Vins de Pays d'Oc) region in the south.

These less restrictive rules, enjoyed by being on the periphery of the AOC laws which govern every aspect of the French wine industry, has had the added bonus of attracting some of the most avant-garde New World producers who have seized the opportunity to experiment.

By adopting a simple and fresh understanding that there are places you could grow good grapes and places where you couldn't, choosing the best suited variety and investing in some new equipment, the vast majority of the wines are impressively modern and forward-looking and are now the source of some of France's best value flavours.

While all other French wines have suffered the tidal wave of competition from New World countries, Vins de Pays has, in many cases, joined forces with their rivals to come from nowhere to being around one in every ten bottles of wine sold in the UK's off-trade.

It's not often you get the chance of more quality for less money but the south of France is quite simply brim full of fabulous, fruit-drenched, ultra-modern and rustic style wines which slot perfectly into a very attractive and affordable price bracket.

May 1, 2003 09:30