How the much-maligned Beaujolais could show racing the way to go with its Premier project

A short detour before we get on to the racing stuff, via some vineyards in France. You may have heard of Beaujolais Nouveau, particularly if, like me, you're getting on a bit.

It was extremely popular in Britain in yuppy bars in the late 1980s and 1990s and is made in Beaujolais, a region in France to the north of Lyon. Nouveau wasn't particularly great, but good enough. However, one consequence of its success was that the Beaujolais region was characterised as a one-trick pony.

It could produce easy-drinking, cheap wine, but when it came to quality the perception was that you had to look elsewhere – a perception that still persists today. And how do you change people's perceptions? Effective marketing, of course.