Claude Gros is an unprincipled chameleon. At least that’s how he describes himself, not as a wiry, peripatetic consultant oenologist born in Perpignan 45 years ago and introduced to wine by his doctor father. Although now based in Narbonne, he has clients from Bordeaux to Ribera del Duero in Spain. Except that according to him they are not clients but “people that I work with”.

When I ask him what his winemaking style is, he insists, “I’m a chameleon. I don’t have principles. We build something together. I don’t have a style I want to impose. I try to understand what they want – obviously within the possibilities of their terroir. The most important part of my job is listening to them – and tasting together, too, so that I can hear what they have to say about the wines.”