Let no one enter who isn’t an ampelographer… or at least curious about the forgotten grape varieties of this corner of Quercy. Born and bred round these parts, Clément Thomas cultivates a taste for all things local: in a room of the old house he’s restoring, amid hefty farmhouse furniture and old wine casks repurposed as shelves, the former sommelier (previously at La Tour d’Argent) showcases the cream of the crop and the new kids on the winemaking block from the Lot’s limestone plateaus, all digging through dusty old tomes for long-lost grape varieties. His eventual aim? To bring these grapes back to life on long-neglected hillsides. In short, a rural showroom in all its unfiltered glory… enough to make you thirsty for more. · Roland Tarte

Shopping list: Mec Mortel, a juicy little malbec at a sweet price from Danis Dans La Vigne in Puy-L’Évêque (€8 a bottle), plus Harmonie, a Béarn blend of gros and petit manseng from Sébastien Comte (€27).