2023 Héritage du Pic Saint-Loup, Pic Saint-Loup Rouge “Tour de Pierres” Languedoc, France.
The latest Héritage du Pic Saint-Loup is a beautiful dark Rhône style wine made from all biodynamic 50% Syrah, 40% Grenache and 10% Mourvèdre that shows off an impactful and full bodied palate with boysenberry, black plum, blueberry and candied cherry fruits, along with white pepper, wild sage, crushed violets, crunchy umami, mineral tones, tarry licorice, sweet cedar wood and creme de cassis notes. This wine presents itself in fine fashion and truly not far off quality examples of Gigondas, Vinsorbes or Vaqueyras with a cooler tone to the fruit, being led by the Syrah and nicely balanced, making it a fabulous value for you find in the glass. Pic Saint-Loup, which flies under the radar, is a remote wine appellation in the Languedoc, located north of Montpellier, and is known for its dramatic limestone peaks and diverse soils, with a cooler Mediterranean climate and mountain breezes. These conditions, which show clearly here in this beautiful wine by Héritage du Pic Saint-Loup, allow for heightened aromatics, lovely richness or ripeness of fruit, crisp detailing and balance. Importer, Kermit Lynch has a tight and excellent set of wines from Pic Saint-Loup and they have been long time favorites of mine, especially La Roque and Héritage du Pic Saint-Loup. The Pic Saint-Loup region’s claim to fame are the red blends, mainly similar to this, with mostly Syrah, Grenache and Mourvèdre included, though you’ll find some tasty whites and Rosé offerings here and Héritage du Pic Saint-Loup has those too, and of particular interest is their 50% Roussanne, 30% Grenache Blanc and Gris, 15% Marsanne and 5% Clairette Cuvée Saint Agnès blanc.
The Héritage du Pic Saint Loup winery (formerly known as Ermitage du Pic Saint Loup, in case you thought it sounded familiar.) run by the brothers, Xavier, Pierre, and Jean-Marc Ravaille, is named after the hermitage (memorial) that dates back to the Middle Ages, when it was the former home of the bishops of Maguelone. The limestone peak or “pic” perched above the vineyards, the namesake landmark to the area and this very notable wine region in the Languedoc, was named for the legendary Saint Thieri Loup, one of the local legends and crusaders. This label was born in 1992 when the brothers planted some higher slopes that were once used for grazing sheep that were used for cheese production with a unique set of soils, with the parcel used here in the Tour de Pieres having iron rich red clay, giving it a distinctive micro terroir character. There’s an array of certified organic plots of vines here at Héritage du Pic Saint-Loup , as noted by Kermit Lynch, with the classic marly limestone and dolomite, as well as the red and white clay, along with some sand, and round galets, (stones) like found in Châteauneuf-du-Pape. For this bottling the Ravaille used carefully selected grapes, mostly de-stemmed, which they cool ferment with native yeasts in vat with a long maceration before being racked to barrels. The wine is blended from the rocky red clay single Tour de Pierres parcel and aged in a combination of small barriques and larger foudres with just about 20% new oak employed, which perfectly soften the tannins, but allow for purity to shine through. I highly recommend chasing down this wine, and the whole Héritage du Pic Saint-Loup collection of reds, plus, the mentioned above, Châteauneuf style white blend too, they are all delicious examples of what you can here in the Pic Saint Loup appellation.
($23 Est.) 93 Points, grapelive