Regional profile PIC ST-LOUP Dominated by the tilted limestone block of Pic St-Loup itself, this appellation on the cooler, wetter eastern side of the Languedoc AP region is noted for its fresh and fragrant wines, with Syrah the star. Andrew Jefford charts...
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Regional profile PIC ST-LOUP Dominated by the tilted limestone block of Pic St-Loup itself, this appellation on the cooler, wetter eastern side of the Languedoc AP region is noted for its fresh and fragrant wines, with Syrah the star. Andrew Jefford charts its progress and predicts a bright future A long march, a novel, a saga: there are many analogies for the slow emergence and differentiation over the past 40 years of Languedoc’s appellations. Why slow? Geography, in a word. In contrast to regions such as Burgundy or the Rhône, Languedoc’s appellations unfold east to west, not north to ‘The northern Rhône aside, south. That means that there are no clear climatic contrasts of the sort that distinguish nowhere in France can offer Chablis from the Mâconnais, or Côte-Rôtie from Châteauneuf-du-Pape. All lie in ‘the better Syrah aromatic Mediterranean zone’ – so differences between them in soil, climate and performance are a profiles than Pic St-Loup’ matter of nuance. With every year that
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