In praise of fine wine - from China of course

I've been a wine buff, in a strictly amateur sense, ever since I lived in France in the 1980s.

So like many others, including most of France it would seem, I was stunned when it was reported earlier this month that a team of Chinese tasters had beaten France into second place at an international blind wine-tasting session in Provence.

You have to have lived in France to understand the combination of snobbery and conceit that surrounds the wine culture in that country, where each region has its favorite and kids are allowed a watered-down glass of wine at the family meal on Sundays from a very early age.