Domaine de Castelnau Garenne Picpoul de Pinet 2025

Domaine de Castelnau Garenne Picpoul de Pinet

Region: Languedoc, France

Vintage: 2025

Bottle size: 75cl

Grape: Picpoul

ABV: 12.5%

This wine is pale yellow in colour with green hints. There are vibrant citrus aromas of grapefruit and floral notes on the nose. The palate is full but balanced by the Picpoul's natural freshness and zesty finish.

Grapes for this Picpoul grow on the estate’s 160 hectares of vineyard close to Pézenas, in the Occitanie region of southern France. The vines are planted at 5000 per hectare on stony clay-limestone soils and are farmed using the Guyot system and Royat pruning.

The grapes were harvested at night to ensure they were cool when they arrived at the winery. This meant that the delicate fruit character was kept fresh before pressing, and the aromatic style of the wine was guaranteed. The wine was fermented in stainless steel tanks which ensured no oxidation of the precious stone fruit character. A cool fermentation also helped preserve the fruit purity. The wine was aged for a few months in stainless steel and concrete tanks.

Located near Pézenas, halfway between the Massif Central and the Mediterranean Sea, Domaine de Castelnau Garenne comprises a 160-hectare estate that benefits from fresh sea breezes, preserving acidity and freshness in the grapes. It is owned by Christophe Muret, who, like Yves Ricome of La Croix Gratiot, was a melon farmer before he began growing grapes in 1997. The word ‘Garenne’ in the domaine’s name references the wild rabbits Christophe would see in his vines when he first started as a vigneron. Thankfully, these are a rarer sight these days, but they still remind him of his winemaking journey.