Word on the Vine - Picpoul

Fresh without being sharp, this Languedoc grape creates well-rounded whites that pair naturally with Mediterranean fare

THE GRAPE
Picpoul is a grape mainly grown around Pinet, a village west of Montpellier in Languedoc, southern France, where cooling Mediterranean sea breezes protect its natural high acidity. It’s the Gallic equivalent of other zesty coastal wines such as Portuguese vinho verde, Italian pecorino and Spanish albariño: dry, unoaked, cool and crisp. In the UK, which accounts for over a half of all exports, the tall green bottles rarely sell for more than £15; screwcaps maintain the freshness of a wine best drunk young.

THE TASTE
The appeal of picpoul is that it manages to be fresh without being sharp, thanks to a mouth-filling roundness. There’s grapefruit and lemon but also white pepper and minerality, plus subtle floral and herbal notes. The wines are well-structured but not to the point of suppressing the grape’s natural vivacity.

THE PAIRINGS
A clean finish makes it a perfect apéritif, but a lack of complexity on the palate makes it well suited to serving with equally simple food. Bouzigues oysters fresh from the Étang de Thau lagoon, France’s second-largest lake, are the classic local match, as is pan-fried white fish from the Med. But anything southern European and summery works – tomato salad or ratatouille, say – and it’s one of the few wines to pair well with oily fish such as mackerel and sardines.

THE VINES
The Picpoul de Pinet appellation, which stretches from the old Roman town of Pézenas to the fishing port of Sète, was granted AOC status in 2013. Today, it is the largest dry white wine producing appellation in Languedoc, with around 80 per cent of production in the hands of co-operatives, which keeps the prices down. Vines grow on a sun-drenched limestone plateau amid pine groves and garrigue. Wine production goes back to the time of Greek settlers around 600BC but commercial growing of picpoul didn’t really take off until the decline of the local vermouth trade in the Seventies.

Words by Ben MaCormack

This review was taken from the August/September 2024 issue of Food and Travel. To subscribe today, click here.