Vins de Pays are a mirror image of France, a variety of landscapes, cultures and local accents. They are enjoying a fashionable following. Each has its own character and personality and each Vins de Pays bears the name of its region of origin. Produced from familiar grape varieties, these fruit driven wines with their soft, easy tannins make excellent party wines. Large injections of capital investment in recent years have resulted in the dramatic transformation in the quality of the wines of the South West. Producers are increasingly eager to make use of oak-cask maturation and to domaine and chateau bottle their estate wines. These are good, honest bottles of the winemakers art and represent very good value.