Julie Benau Picpoul de Pinet
$28.00
Out of stock
Vintage: 2022
Region: Languedoc-Roussillon, France
Viticulture: Organic
Grape varieties: Picpoul
Julie Benau Picpoul de Pinet is a fantastic zero/zero white wine from Southern France. Most Picpoul-based wines can be insipid and uninspired. But thanks to extended lees aging, this wine has a good body and round texture while retaining a “lip-smacking” acidity. Saline minerality from the Mediterranean Sea, ripe orchard fruits, under-ripe tropical fruits, and green tea leaves give the wine complexity and dimension.
Song: Like Exploding Stones by Kurt Vile
Additional information
Out of stock
Save 10% when you buy six or more bottles (mix and match)
ABOUT THE PRODUCER
About Julie Benau Picpoul de Pinet
Julie Benau Picpoul de Pinet is a fantastic zero/zero white wine from Southern France. Most Picpoul-based wines can be insipid and uninspired. But thanks to extended lees aging, this wine has a good body and round texture while retaining a “lip-smacking” acidity. Saline minerality from the Mediterranean Sea, ripe orchard fruits, under-ripe tropical fruits, and green tea leaves give the wine complexity and dimension.
About Julie Benau
The Benau family bought their property, a 16th-century fortified farmhouse in the south of France, in 1980, and, for the next twenty years or so, they sold all their grape production to the local co-op. In 1999, when their young daughter Julie returned home, they began bottling some of the wine on their own, and at her insistence, they were aiming for only the highest quality. They are adapting their vineyard work and are making investments in the cellar with the goal of increasing the quality and as the quality merits, bottling more wine.
Picpoul de Pinet is an appellation composed of 6 communes in front of the bay of Thau, near Sète between Bezier and Montpellier. The land is rich with rocky soil and hillsides producing sunny and noble wine. The vineyards are planted only with Picpoul, which Jancis Robinson says comes from “pique poul” meaning “lip stinger” due to the high acidity in the grapes. James Wilson disputes this and suggests that piquepoul is in fact another name for the Folle Blanche of Armagnac and Cognac – another ‘lip-stinging’ grape. In any case, Picpoul is known for its high acidity and since at least the 17th century it was blended with Clairette to give that grape some spine. All of the vineyards in Picpoul de Pinet share a southern exposition, are sheltered by inland hills from the NW wind, and enjoy lots of sunshine and the moderation of summer heat by humid ocean breezes.