Picpoul de Pinet

      The étang de Thau, looking towards Mont Ste Claire and Sète

 

The success of Picpoul de Pinet has been extraordinary.   It was not so long ago that the vineyards around the étang de Thau were producing some very lack lustre wine for the production of Noilly Prat in the nearby town of Marseillan.   But the vermouth market has declined and Picpoul’s fortunes have soared, as the wine growers realised that they needed to improve the quality of their wine.   These days a restaurant wine list without Picpoul de Pinet is rare indeed.  According to Joel Julien, the very able director of the cooperative of Pomerols, one of the villages in the appellation, the turning point came when they won Best White Wine of the Languedoc in the annual Top 100 tasting competition for their Tesco’s Finest Label.   And they have not looked back.

 

There was an extensive Picpoul de Pinet tasting in London last month, with wines from some 30 producers, both cooperatives and private estates.    To give you tasting notes for each wine would be tedious in the extreme.  The nuances are subtle and not so very different.  Are the flavours more or less salty, with more or less acidity, and more or less depth.  Good Picpoul de Pinet should always have a salty tang, and it should have some acidity, but not too much, and there should be a little weight in the mouth, but not too much.  Some might call it the Muscadet of the south and like Muscadet, it goes supremely well with an oyster.   One of my magical Languedoc moments is eating super fresh oysters almost on the water’s edge at one of the establishments run by one of the oyster farmers on the étang.   To call it a restaurant would give it ideas above its station –  we are talking tables and chairs with some shade overhead and primitive kitchen facilities.  And the wine is of course Picpoul, which you enjoy with a view of the oyster beds on the lagoon.   

 

Some producers are now making an effort to enhance and diversify the flavours of Picpoul de Pinet.  To confuse matters, the grape is Piquepoul and the appellation is Picpoul and you can also find Piquepoul Noir, which makes a light fresh wine, redolent of cherry fruit, with acidity as well as a streak of tannin.    And from Piquepoul Blanc, you may also find sparkling wine and wine aged in barrel, but more significantly,  there has been a concentrated effort to look at the ageing potential of Picpoul de Pinet, with what they call the Patience Collection, of which there were seven wines in the tasting, from the cooperatives of Montagnac, Pinet, Florensac and Pomerols as well Les Domaines de Petit Roubié, which has just been bought by the cooperative of Sancerre in the Loire Valley.  Domaine Félines Jourdan, was one of my favourites with salty notes and some weight and depth, from some lees stirring.  Château de Pinet Gaujal de Saint Bon also showed some firm salty fruit and depth, as did Hommage à Etienne Farrras from the Pinet coop, Cave de l’Ormarine.   And new to me was Cave Florès, which is the label of the Florensac cooperative.  

 

The event concluded with a tutored tasting of older bottles.  I was not able to stay for the complete commentary, but they very kindly poured out the wines for me to taste.   The two stars of the eight wines were 2013 Domaine Félines Jourdan, with some herbal salty notes and very satisfying weight and mouthfeel – who would have thought that a Picpoul de Pinet would still be drinkable at 12 years of age – and a magnum of 2017 from L’Ormarine was deliciously intriguing with salty nuances.   Both a real surprise.    And they certainly made me look at Picpoul de Pinet in a new light.

      Not a smart restaurant, and not recommended in the rain!