Picpoul de Pinet is doing well. Production has doubled since 1990. We have never really quite understood why this wine from Languedoc has become so popular. Good marketing is certainly one reason. The wine has a good reputation as an unpretentious seafood wine. And now it will soon have its own appellation, AOP Picpoul de Pinet, instead of being a sub-appellation of the Languedoc.
The wine is made in the area near the Bassin de Thau with its large mussel and oyster farms. The new appellation rules are slightly stricter than those applied previously. The yield is lowered from 60 to 55 hectoliters per hectare, the vines must be 4 years instead of 3 before the grapes may be used and planting density for new plantings should be at 4400 vines per hectare.
According Vitisphere the spokesman for the new appellation says that it would be good if the name of the grape piquepoul is renamed. Isn’t that a little excessive? The spelling is already different. The grape is spelled piquepoul and the wine picpoul. The spokesman mentions the prosecco grape in Italy that, at the request of winegrowers in the DOCG Prosecco Valdobbiadene, was renamed Glera. Outside of Picpoul de Pinet the grape piquepoul is not much seen. It is however allowed in Châteauneuf-du-Pape and also planted in California.
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