Motorists have taken part in a historic race to bring back the year’s first vintage Beaujolais from the famous wine-making region in France.

The drivers set off from the Royal Automobile Club’s Woodcote Park estate in Epsom on Monday and were expected back with cases of the wine on Friday.

The Beaujolais Run is commemorating the Great War and teams will stop off at trenches and the cellars of Champagne Taittinger which was a military hospital during the war.

The run, now in its 44th year, started out as a challenge over dinner between wine legend Joseph Berkmann and MP Clement Freud who was director of the London Playboy Club and a wine correspondent.