Ch. St Martin de La Garrigue Picpoul de Pinet 2016

Radiant yellow with refined floral, mineral, and lively citrus aromas. Dense yet fresh with a lush round mouthfeel.

Color: White
Grapes: 100 Picpoul
Soil: Limestone and red sandstone
Age of vines: 25 years old
Altitude: 120 m
Yield: 45 hl/ha
Farming practices: sustainable
Skin maceration: 10 hours
Fermentation vessel: stainless steel
Aging: four months on the fine lees in stainless steel
Production: 22,000 bottles per year

About Winery

Chteau Saint-Martin de la Garrigue is a grand vineyard property in the south of France. The estate includes a Renaissance style castle from the 16th century with a lovely little 9th-century chapel inside. The fifty plots that make up the estate vineyard surround the castle in a typically Mediterranean environment, with eastward facing slopes and warm summers tempered by sea breezes. The property is surrounded by 100 hectares of garrigue, pine and olive trees as well as 60 hectares of vineyard composed of nine red and eight white grape varieties. The vineyards are marked by the unmistakable smell of pine intermingling with the pungent aromas of evergreen oak, almond, olive, thyme, rosemary and downy cistus flowers that dominate the surrounding Mediterranean garrigue.

The soils are composed of limestone conglomerate and red sandstone, which, together with maintaining low yields and harvesting at a late maturity of the grape, give concentrated and aromatic wines that are sure to invigorate the senses. The elevation here, slightly higher than all its neighbors, allows the harvest to proceed a week or two later, giving wines of more intense flavor but still-incomparable freshness. The estate produces a broad assortment of excellent red, white, and ros wines from local varieties, including Mediterranean blends of all three colors from the cru of Bronzinelle, but the overlooked gem in their portfolio is certainly a unique and category-defying Picpoul de Pinet made from old vines, mineral inflected but with a richness and flavor density that recall something between a top-tier Muscadet and an excellent white from the southern Rhne.