A blend of 60% Syrah, 35% Mourvèdre and 5% Grenache, the 2018 Pic Saint Loup Grande Cuvée spent 18 months in a mix of barriques and 400-liter barrels, yet the wine isn't overtly oaky. Garrigue marks the nose, followed by hints of cherries and raspberries, while the medium to full-bodied palate is smooth and silky in texture, gliding to a long finish tinged with espresso and dark chocolate.

Aged a year in one-third new oak (barriques and 400-liter barrels), the 2016 Pic Saint Loup Grande Cuvée is a blend of 60% Syrah, 35% Mourvèdre and 5% Grenache. It's a full-bodied, lush wine, ripe and creamy, with blueberry and raspberry fruit dressed up by hints of cinnamon, vanilla and nutmeg on the silky, elegant finish.

In contrast to the white wine, the blend of the Grande Cuvée red has been settled for a long time. It is 60% Syrah (never a whiff of over-ripeness), 35% Mourvèdre (in a very different, lighter and more athletic style to Bandol), and 5% Grenache to act as liaison - it gets a full five weeks on its skins although extraction, using a gentle daily rack-and-return followed by soft pumpovers to keep the cap moist, is very gentle. It's a selection of wines from the best parcels: well-drained but with a water reserve for the long, dry summers, giving a homogenous ripening cycle. The blends are made prior to ageing, which takes place in tank as well as barriques and 400-litre barrels, though with little new wood. Made in a difficult hail year for Pic St Loup, this is a clear, deep red in colour, with teasing aerial aromas in which red and black fruits are perfectly aligned. On the palate there is cascading fresh acidity, very fine-grained tannins and deep fruit flavours in which the cherry, raspberry and plum notes mingle with tea leaf, herbs and pine. A pretty wine which combines almost Burgundian weight and finesse with distinctive Languedoc flavours.

The 2015 Pic Saint Loup Grande Cuvée spent 18 months in oak, about 20% new. A blend of 60% Syrah, 35% Grenache and 5% Mourvèdre, it starts off with hints of cedar, baking spices and leather, then adds complex notes of cherries, blueberries, black olives and roasted meat. It's medium to full-bodied yet remains smooth and silky in feel, showing no signs of over-ripeness or overextraction. In short, it's a lovely example of the balance that Pic Saint-Loup can produce.

In bottle under two weeks when I tasted it, the red l’Hortus 2009 Coteaux du Languedoc Pic Saint-Loup Grande Cuvee smells of peat, wood smoke, quarry dust, and leather mingled with cherry and red raspberry. Ample and glycerin-rich yet persistently brightly-fruited and fine-grained in tannin, its palate performance belies the more evolved or animal traits that I was led to anticipate by the nose. There is a balanced and intriguing mingling of carnal, mineral, and fruit nuances in the rather restrained finish, which I hope and suspect will have become more expressive once the wine put some time between itself and its bottling date. This ought to be one worth following for at least half a dozen years. The pioneering Orliac family’s dramatically-situated, Domaine de l’Hortus – for more on which, as well as about their Clos du Prieur estate at Saint-Jean de Bueges in the Terrasses du Larzac (whose wines I have reviewed here under the “Hortus” covering designation) see my report in issue 183 – continue to fine-tune their expertise both in the vineyards (which I had further opportunity to traipse in their company on the occasion of my April visit) and the cellar. The Orliacs are getting more opportunity than they really welcome to explore alternative clones and selections of Syrah, because like so many Languedoc growers – but especially those in Pic Saint-Loup – they are experiencing worrisomely high rates of mortality from a mysterious fungal malady in that cepage. The downdrafts from the gap between this region’s signature Pic Saint-Loup and Hortus peaks strike the Orliacs’ Domaine de l’Hortus first and with greatest force, so it’s not surprising that the cool concentration of 2010 was enhanced here even on the high, rocky, south-facing so-called “Three Steps” that ripen their Mourvedre (and above that, olives). In fact, the Mourvedre ripened sooner than Orliacs had expected in 2010, while Syrah accentuated the vintage-typical lateness of harvest. Some of the raw material in red from this highly-promising season – which, on the whole, shows head-turning perfume and fantastic finesse – was still in malo. (A portion had experimentally been put into demi-muids rather than barrique, though it was far too early when I visited for them or me to draw any even tentative conclusions.) As for the 2010 whites, final blending decisions had not yet been made for the Grande Cuvee but the materials have the making of this estate’s best-ever. Speaking of late harvests, the Mourvedre was not picked in 2008 at Hortus until October 10 – and the Syrah mid-September – with results uncannily well-balanced; full of nuance; and downright refreshing. On the other hand, a decision was made not to bottle a Clos du Prieur because in that cool, breezy, high-elevation location (some dozen kilometers north of St.-Jean-de-Fos along the gorge of the Herault), the fruit was simply deemed insufficiently ripe. By contrast, 2009 – as one would expect – commenced precociously. Still, the harvest was not completed at Hortus until the end of September, but then with marginally disappointing results when judged against this estate’s outstanding track record; whereas the Clos Prieur red distinguished itself. Interestingly, Orliac wines tend to inhabit a relatively narrow – and, for the Languedoc, low – band of finished alcohol between 13.5% and 14% year in, year out.Domaine de l’Hortus’ importers are Eric Solomon Selections, Charlotte, NC; tel. (704) 358-1565 and Beaune Imports, Berkeley, CA; tel. (510) 559 1040 (Michael Sullivan) whose proprietors rather remarkably, notes Jean Orliac, first visited him within days of one another more than a quarter century ago to taste the estate’s inaugural collection.