Saint Martin de la Garrigue’s 2010 Coteaux du Languedoc Blanc Picpoul de Pinet offers a delicious compendium of that genre’s virtues. Mouth-filling and faintly oily in texture, it nevertheless delivers generous refreshment, with bitterness of preserved lemon rind and tang of fresh pineapple suffused with brine and chalk that I honestly believe would practically compel one – even absent knowledge of Picpoul’s history or geography – to think of the sea, or of devouring a fresh oyster! Relish this over the next 12-18 months. From a high rise overlooking both the Herault River and the Mediterranean – halfway between Pezenas and Meze – Italian-, American-owned Saint Martin de la Garrigue turns out some consistently excellent values under the winemaking auspices of Jean-Claude Zabalia. I tasted only a selection of samples that reflected one vintage each in white and red. (Had I not been late in so-doing, these notes would – and, geographically speaking ought to – have been included in my issue 195 report.)Importer: Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant, Berkeley, CA; tel. (510) 524-1524

The Saint Martin 2005 Picpoul de Pinet smells of resin, grapefruit rind and clove, fills the mouth with (the duty of this appellation) refreshment, and clings with excellent persistence of chalk and salt. Importer: Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant, Berkeley, CA; tel. (510) 524-1524