After what seems like a gestation period of a Diplodocus, our Ormarine Picpoul de Pinet (Sur Lie) is finally docking into Melbourne early next week. Aka ‘The Muscadet of the South’ & ‘The ‘Lip Stinger of Languedoc’, this little white has created quite a stir in the trade following a few cameo appearances at recent trade tastings.
Grown on the sandy soils mixed with pebbles (sometimes with gravelly stone) just meters from the oyster beds of the Bassin de Thau, the wine obviously marries perfectly with fish and shellfish. Picpoul actually does mean "lip stinger," which refers to the high acidity of its must. This wine is crisp, but quite long and full with grapefruit/citrus bite nice floral (hawthorn) and mineral notes in the nose. Bracing acidity backs up a wine with surprising breed for this price point. As in Muscadet, a ‘sur lie’ wine must spend at least a full winter in contact with the lees and not be bottled to after the third week of March following the harvest, thus resulting in a fuller, creamier ad more complete wine.
This on the lye of the land from the official AOC website:
The ancient Roman "Via Domitienne" runs right through the area, dividing it into two distinctive terroirs : To the north: lades of garrigue, pines and vines alternate with rocky outcrops, the land dating from the Cretaceous period (+/- 100m years) and Miocene (+/-15m years) epoch. Here the climate is hotter and more humid than on the coastal strip, with abundant Mediterranean type vegetation. In the south: flatter land (consisting of weathered, sandy stones crisscrossed with deep furrows and low hills) sweeps straight to the sea. Vines are the only plants here in a climate tempered by sea breezes and mist. The soil was washed down during the Pliocene (+/- 2m years) epoch.
Nic@
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