Last week I witnessed a scene I never thought I'd see: a member of Tesco's wine department arguing passionately about the relative merits of the different premiers crus produced by a cult Chablis grower. As someone who has over the years dutifully tasted my way through many a pedestrian wine range chez Tesco, I had seen remarkably little evidence of real, full-blooded passion for wine. Tesco wine chat had always been more bulk shipping and screwcaps.

But Graham Nash, the Chablis enthusiast, is now Tesco's "product development manager France, South Africa". He used to work for traditional merchant Lay & Wheeler and until quite recently managed Tesco's wine store in Calais. He is not a supermarket being but a bona fide wine nut. And even Jason Godley, the wine category manager, who has come from buying quite different products for the behemoth, is now "a real wine anorak" according to one of his colleagues, who admits to the same sorry state himself. All of this may soon have a decidedly benign effect on the British wine enthusiast.