I’m always struck by how good the Cornish are at championing their own producers. I don’t know if it’s because they feel so cut off from the rest of the country that they worry if they don’t buy their stuff, no one will, but no sooner does a supplier worth his spurs set up shop than he is able to boast patronage by the great and the good of the county (ie, Rick Stein and/or Jamie Oliver).

Take Tom Sobey, who six years ago set up Origin Coffee (www.origincoffee.co.uk) near Falmouth and now supplies both the Seafood Restaurant in Padstow and Fifteen in Watergate Bay. Or the Cornish Sea Salt Company (www.cornishseasalt.co.uk), which only launched very recently but has already won over the admittedly not very West Country Mark Hix, and is being stocked by Rick Stein at his deli. They sent me some of their salt the other day – “from Grade A turquoise waters off Lizard Peninsula” – and very good it is too. Splendidly, er, salty, with a rich tang of the sea.

What is even more impressive is how supportive Cornish restaurants have been of local winemaker Mark Hellyar, whose first vintage of Château Civrac claret has made it on to the lists of most Michelin-starred restaurants in the West Country, including the Abbey, Nathan Outlaw and Gidleigh Park.

When I say local, I mean, of course, that Hellyar lives nearby, not that the wine is made here. That all goes on in France. I said Cornish restaurants are supportive, not stupid. But it is Hellyar who owns the vines, cuts the grapes and oversees the blending.

Going through, by his own admission, a bit of a midlife crisis, the instantly likeable Hellyar decided to indulge in his passion, and set about finding a vineyard to produce the sort of wine he and his friends liked drinking: “Something that embodies all the quality aspects of Bordeaux, but with the approachability of the New World.”

So it was that, in late 2005, he settled on Château Civrac, a run-down estate between Pomerol and Margaux, and, together with his winemaker, Vianney De Tastes, set about taming its 25 acres of south-facing merlot, cabernet sauvignon and malbec. The outgoing proprietor had left 26,000 bottles of vinified but unblended wines in the cement tanks, so two-thirds was sold off and the best kept back to create the first vintage.

That 2005 was what Hellyar packed up in his car and hawked around Cornwall and Devon. “There’s definitely a bit of a novelty factor, which gets me through the door,” he admits, “but the quality has to be there. Also, provenance is very important on menus, which all list their food suppliers nowadays, but that doesn’t work with wine, because restaurants usually buy from a wholesaler, who buys from an importer, who buys from a négociant… So for me, the producer, to be able to talk about the wine directly is a huge advantage.”

It hasn’t all been easy (last summer was the worst in 60 years), but Château Civrac’s reputation is on the up. Cuisine et Vins de France declared it one of the country’s top 500 wines, and Bibendum is to offer the ’07 for sale en primeur. Hellyar can afford to be a little bit pleased with himself.

“After prostitution, winemaking must be the oldest profession in the world,” he says, “and, after water, it must be the commonest drink. It’s a lovely thing to be involved in and, whether they like my wine or not, everyone’s interested and has an opinion. Coming from IT, that’s not something I’ve always been able to say.”

www.civrac.com

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