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Accordingly, I’ve decided to delve back into France’s AC wines one more time, to try to work out a few ways of spotting a quality wine without prior knowledge of its particular area of production. As I’ve learnt, giving a wine AC status isn’t in itself a guarantee of consistent quality. While even I know, for example, Bordeaux’s wines are legendary, it’s still quite possible to quaff one of the cheaper bottles from within the boundaries in the Bordeaux AC region and think: "Hmmm, this would probably taste even better if I made it into sangria". So what other pointers to quality are there?

Well, one possible clue towards a good wine is the phrase "Mise en bouteille au chateau/domaine", meaning "bottled at the chateau/estate". As you will no doubt deduce, this means instead of shipping it to a negociant, the producers bottle their wine themselves. The chateau referred to needn’t necessarily be a full-blown castle, it’s a generic term referring to the processing building at the centre of an estate.

Initially a measure brought in by the most prestigious Bordeaux producers to protect their wines from adulteration, estate bottling requires a substantial investment by producers, and thus isn’t necessarily viable for smaller producers. As such, it isn’t in itself a guarantee of superior quality, except that the sort of winemakers who are prepared to deal with the fuss of bottling their own product are generally the sort that are prepared to deal with the fuss of making their wines with extreme care.

If you really want to guarantee yourself quality – if not always value for money – from a French wine, scan the label for the word "Cru". This term, usually translated as "growth" is an elite term designating the best vineyards in the Bordeaux and Burgundy regions, as well as in a few regions with somewhat less prestige, such as Alsace and the Beaujolais. Premier Crus from Bordeaux and Burgundian Grand Crus are some of best-structured, most deeply flavoured wines money can buy, produced in hallowed sites like St Emilion and Nuits-St-George with immaculate soil and growing conditions. Naturally, these come at a price – a good cru can set you back as much as the cost of a decent pair of shoes.