From: Languedoc, France
Varietal: Piquepoul
Tasting Notes: Generous aromas of lemon verbena, jasmine, and asian pear blossom. A coastal, fresh minerality reveals itself on the palate alongside traces of lemon rind as the wine builds to a mouth-watering finish.
Pairing: Its freshness matches perfectly with products with an iodine character like shellfish, seafood, or grilled fish.
Piquepoul, ancient grape variety from the Vaucluse département of southern France that is encountered in Blanc, Noir, and very occasionally Gris versions, with the white being the most planted today, although they have frequently been mixed in the vineyard in their long history in the Languedob-Roussillon. Piquepoul meaning ‘lip-stinger’, possibly signifying the high acidity of its must, was cited as a producer of good-quality wine as early as the beginning of the 17th century.
Thus, Picpoul de Pinet becomes the popular dry, aromatic Languedoc white given its own AOC in 2013, when it appropriated the name Picpoul and decreed that Piquepoul be used for the variety by all other appellations. The green-gold, full-bodied, lemon-flavoured white wine is grown on about 1,400 ha/3,460 acres of fairly low-lying land between Pézenas and the Bassin de Thau lagoon exclusively from Picpoul Blanc grapes. This curious speciality, one of the country’s few varietally named AOC wines, has in the post-modern age of vinification attracted new interest.
