WHEN Sir Ridley Scott read in The Times the story of a young British entrepreneur who was astounding — and outraging — the old guard of French winemakers by creating from scratch fine wines that sold for thousands of pounds a case, the film-maker showed it to his friend Peter Mayle, the best-selling author of A Year in Provence.

The novelist also saw the potential in the report from 1996 and it inspired the two men to create A Good Year, starring Russell Crowe, the story of a London banker who moves to Provence after inheriting a vineyard.

The Times article, by Ben Macintyre, was about Bordeaux “garage” wines, produced in small batches without a château, which had begun to command huge prices.

It told the story of Hugh Ryman, who moved to France when his father sold the family’s high-street stationery business. He had studied winemaking in Bordeaux and in the French châteaux of Yquem and Latour before attending the leading wine school in Australia, near Adelaide.

To the dismay of his neighbours, and using his knowhow and the latest technology, Mr Ryman began to create a range of wines that appealed strongly to the average consumer, mirroring the successes of the wines from the Antipodes, South America and the United States, and driving home — this time on their own soil — what the old guard of French viticulture had never wanted to acknowledge: that you do not need a recognised name to make and sell fine wine.

On being told yesterday of the film, Mr Ryman said: “I’m intrigued, surprised and flattered. I’d be fascinated to see it.”

Since The Times visited him in 1996, Mr Ryman has had to restructure his business. Having grown too quickly, he encountered cash-flow problems and an internal share-holder disagreement. The original company was put into liquidation three years ago.

But he has started up a new one, R-Wines, specialising in winemaking and distribution. Now aged 45, he is still living in Provence and has no intention of coming home. Although he still has a British passport, he considers himself a “European” — rather like Mayle, who lives full-time in the Luberon area of Provence, and Scott who has a holiday home and a vineyard of 11 hectares (27 acres) there.

Scott, who still has his original clipping from The Times, said: “I saw this piece about a vineyard that was selling garage wine for more than £30,000 a case. I was looking for an excuse to come back to France to shoot a film, and this story idea offered the perfect opportunity.

“I bounced this idea off Peter Mayle and he said, ‘That would make a good novel’. And I said, ‘You write the book, then I’ll get the film rights’. So, he wrote the book, which was successful.”

Like Mr Ryman, Scott, originally from South Shields, Northumberland, also started his career in commercials. He went on to become one of cinema’s most influential film-makers with a string of hits to his name, including Gladiator which also starred Crowe.

Ben Macintyre's original article from June 1, 1996