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Spotlight
on Pic St Loup
a
leading Languedoc wine region
 I guess all wine geeks have their favourite two or three
wine regions – those that they have a special attachment to, for one
reason or another.
For me, one of these would have to be Pic St Loup, a
commune of the Coteaux du Languedoc, some 20 km inland from
Montpellier in the South of France.
I first discovered this region almost by chance, a decade
or so ago when I was just getting into wine and happened to be
spending a few days at the excellent municipal camping site at St
Martin de Londres.
The Montagne de l'Hortus (right)
and the Pic St Loup |
The landscape here is quite dramatic, with garrigue-like
scrubland (the haut garrigue) dominated by two distinctive
peaks – the Montagne de l’Hortus and the Pic St Loup
itself.
Because the immediate region is the transition point from
the coastal plain to the higher, inland plateau, its climate
is noticeably cooler than many other Languedoc wine growing
regions. |
There are also a range of different microclimates in close
proximity, making it possible to ripen the heat-loving Mourvèdre
grape in one vineyard area while using the cooler sites to produce
elegant, strikingly northern-Rhône-like Syrah (the other key grape
here is Grenache, while some Carignan and Cinsault are still grown).
 Therein
lies the appeal of the red wines from this beautiful rugged region.
Typically, they show lots of colour, good concentration and beautiful
spicy, meaty, earthy complexity. The wines here normally show more
elegance and refinement than those from the hotter Languedoc plains.
Pic St Loup has been buzzing recently – so much so, that
it is soon to become an appellation in its own right. There are plenty
of ambitious, over-achieving producers here, and in the next few pages
I’ll be reviewing just a few of them.
Pic St Loup in figures
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Size: 13 villages north of Montpellier, stretching
25 km north–south and 10 km east–west
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Area of production: 1500 hectares, with 800 ha
planted to Grenache, Syrah and Mourvèdre
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Producers: 3 caves co-op, 36 individual producers
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Conditions
of Production
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Coteaux du Languedoc
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Coteaux du Languedoc Pic St Loup (since 1994)
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AOC Pic St Loup (conditions proposed to the INAO and
under consideration)
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Principal grapes – Grenache, Syrah and Mourvèdre
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50%, and at least 20% must be Syrah
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90%, and at least 20% must be Syrah
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90%, and at least 50% must be Syrah
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Other varieties – Carignan and Cinsault
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50% maximum
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10% maximum
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10% maximum
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Maximum yield
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60 hl/ha
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50 hl/ha
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45 hl/ha
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Minimum age of vines
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3 years
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5 years
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Syrah 5 years, Mourvèdre, Grenache 7 years, Carignan,
Cinsault 10 years
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Minimum degrees of alcohol
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11
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11.5
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12
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Producer reviews
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