by Bob Parsons Alberta » Sun Dec 14, 2008 1:16 pm
Naturally, I am a big fan of this area. Think I have spotted a newer vintage on the Board list?
A close neighbour, Lancyre, is also producing the goods. In fact the rose was my pink WOTY.
I found this piece of info on the appellation.
It’s the Terroir!
Why is Pic Saint Loup the best district in Languedoc? The answer lies in the ‘terroir’. This French word refers to everything that affects the vineyard – soil and subsoil, climate, slope, exposure and the infinite subtleties that distinguish every piece of land from every other.
Pic Saint Loup has a unique microclimate. On my first visit Bernard drove me around in his pickup and explained. Although only 14 miles inland from the Mediterranean, the vineyards average 1500 feet in elevation. They sit in a hilly, irregular valley surrounded on three sides by the Cevennes mountains, 3,000 feet or more above sea level. The descent from the mountains to the vineyards is steep, in some places sheer cliffs.
Days are almost as hot as the coast – as much as 105º in the vineyards mid-afternoon in August. Down on the beach it might be 108º. Nights are different. Cold air pours down, drenching the vineyards in bracing mountain air. At 5:00 AM in mid-August the temperature will usually be below 60 and can fall into the mid-40’s. On the coast, sweltering in your cheap hotel room, you are lucky if it falls below 80º.
The result is the longest growing season in Languedoc, giving the the hang time so important to punters and grapes. The great varietal here is Syrah. In a nutshell: Everywhere else in Languedoc (and the southern Rhone) Syrah is picked in early September. In Pic Saint Loup, the Syrah harvest starts in early October, as in the Northern Rhone. This gives the wines of Pic Saint Loup a finesse unknown in any other Mediterranean vineyard. Think Hermitage and Cote Rotie, not Chateauneuf-du-Pape.
