Two very different French wine shops are set to open within a week of each other in Glasgow. One is in the busy West End and the other is in a relatively under-provided quartier on the South Side.

Cavavin, run in Glasgow by brother and sister twins and specialising in high-end French wines, is a franchise of the family-owned French company which has its own vineyards in Bordeaux, is supported by over 150 independent growers and partners, and has 150 franchises in France and Switzerland plus Hertford and Sheffield in the UK. It will open its first Scottish store in the former Peckham’s site on Hyndland Road later this month or in early December and plans to run a series of wine and spirit tastings. They are bringing in a local wine expert to join the team.

Meanwhile Made From Grapes, an independent outlet run by professional French sommeliere and wine importer Severine Sloboda and her business partner Liam Hanlon, has taken over Maxwells former off-sales on Nithsdale Road, at the popular neighbourhod populated by independently-run cafes, greengrocers and florists, and also plans to open in the first week of December. An established wine importer Made From Grapes concentrates on wines from 10 small producers France and Germany. They too will also run wine tastings, with cheese and charcuterie.

It's an interesting development, and not only because both are opening in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic. It strikes me that, ahead of January’s UK-EU Brexit trade negotiations, this double-whammy Gallic love-bombing of Glasgow is a reminder of Scotland’s historic love of French wine, beginning with Bordeaux Claret in the 17th century Auld Alliance. And, despite the more recent Scottish gin and whisky revolutions, we remain a nation of wine-drinkers: the UK imports £3bn worth of wine every year, predominantly from France and Italy, making it the second largest importer globally.

Yvonne Cozens of Cavavin Glasgow lived for eight years in Switzerland. Severine grew up in Paris. Both women are surely set to be fantastic ambassadors. [I’m just waiting for a photo of Yvonne to upload!]

Severine Sloboda and Liam Hanlon at their soon-to-open Made From Grapes wine outlet in Pollokshields - and, below, as sommeliere at The Gannet, Glasgow

I first wrote about Severine Sloboda two years ago, when she was the first sommelier to be appointed by The Gannet restaurant in Glasgow. The Parisienne was one of only a couple of professional restaurant sommeliers in the city, and the only female one at the time.

She trained with top names in Paris and London before coming to Glasgow five years ago.

Her mother has run the Nicolas wine shop in Paris’s upmarket 7th arrondisement near the Champs Elysees since Severine was 10 years old. She says she was “submerged” in wine from that young age, and went on to train at the Institut du Vin du Savour Club under Georges Lepres, head sommelier at the Ritz. Her first job as head sommelier was in 2006 at Adam Byatt’s Trinity restaurant in Clapham, London. In 2008 she was appointed head sommelier at Angelus near Marble Arch, founded by chef-patron Thierry Tomasin, himself former head sommelier at Le Gavroche. She came to Glasgow five years ago directly from London, where latterly she had been with upscale establishments Corrigan’s of Mayfair and Buddha-Bar in Knightsbridge.

She came to Glasgow directly from London and admits to experiencing something of a culture shock in Glasgow, finding it difficult to secure a professional sommelier position in any restaurant until The Gannet’s Peter McKenna and Ivan Stein took her on. She ran a series of successful wine dinners there for three years until deciding to pursue her dream of opening her own wine business, while continuing to host Somm-Night-In, her virtual wine tastings and masterclass service.

When we met again last week, she offered a fascinating view of the modern Fench wine industry and how Glaswegian tastes are changing. She said she feels Glasgow has become much more progressive and open to new ideas in wine: “Made From Grapes will focus on small artisan producers from Europe, where terroir – the soil, low carbon footprint, ecology and biodiversity - and are the driving factors, not only because that’s what I believe in but also because I see massive demand for that in Glasgow right across the generations,” she says.

In the 14 years she has been in the business, she names a move towards lighter, fresher, wines with natural acidity and minerality and specific hyper-local provenance as the most significant shift in both consumer preference and in production. This chimes, she believes, with the wider food movement. “Ten years ago people began to care about what they ate and where it came from. Now they want to know which wine they’re drinking and where it came from. They are looking for authenticity, provenance, minimum intervention and flavour.

“And it won’t all be 14% ABV,” she adds, to my relief.

She cites the new generation of wine growers re-energising the industry in France, Germany and beyond; ancient cool-climate vineyards with good healthy soil being replanted; and even English pinot noir and Chardonnay being produced in urban wineries such as the Blackbook Winery in London’s Battersea, with grapes purchased from Europe. Natural wines from the Lebanon, Greece and Georgia will also feature, though Severine is adamant that Bordeaux and Burgundy will be mainstays.

The search for premises in her preferred South Side was hampered by the Covid-19 lockdown but now, finally, she and her business partner Liam Hanlon - a lawyer she first met two years ago when he attended one of her wine dinners at The Gannet and chose a Saint Croix La Serre from her wine list - can finally move forward.

Made From Grapes, like Cavavin, will feature a large central sharing table for savouring and discussing individual wines along with charcuterie and cheeses. “Our aim is to be relaxed, friendly, non-prescriptive and certainly not corporate,” says Severine.

So, santé, slaìnte … and vive la différence!