Skip to main content
Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant
Toggle Navigation Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant Your Cart

2016 Pic Saint Loup Rouge “Sainte Agnès”

Ermitage du Pic Saint Loup
Discount Eligible $26.00
SOLD OUT

Biodynamic agriculture may seem like voodoo medicine to some, but few are more convinced of its worth than the three Ravaille brothers, who farm the limestone slopes around Pic Saint Loup in the Languedoc. Since beginning the conversion to biodynamics in 1999, the Ravailles have been quick to sing the praises of this philosophy—homeopathic remedies for vines, if you will. According to cellar master Pierre Ravaille, biodynamics brought noticeable improvements to vineyard health and overall quality within years. Here is a red to support that claim, a blend of mainly Syrah and Grenache from high altitude on poor, thin, rocky soil. Its mystical perfume evokes wild blackberries, smoke, spice, and olive brine in a chewy, mineral-driven expression of this underrated southern French terroir. Drinkable now, it is also a great bargain cellar candidate, and an excellent ambassador for biodynamic viticulture.

Anthony Lynch


Technical Information
Wine Type: red
Vintage: 2016
Bottle Size: 750mL
Blend: 50% Syrah, 40% Grenache, 10% Mourvèdre
Appellation: Languedoc Pic Saint Loup
Country: France
Region: Languedoc-Roussillon
Producer: Ermitage du Pic Saint Loup
Winemaker: Xavier, Pierre, and Jean-Marc Ravaille
Vineyard: 40 – 50 years, 10 ha
Soil: Limestone
Aging: Aged for 12 months
Farming: Biodynamic (practicing)
Alcohol: 14%

More from this Producer or Region

About The Region

Languedoc-Roussillon

map of Languedoc-Roussillon

Ask wine drinkers around the world, and the word “Languedoc” is sure to elicit mixed reactions. On the one hand, the region is still strongly tied to its past as a producer of cheap, insipid bulk wine in the eyes of many consumers. On the other hand, it is the source of countless great values providing affordable everyday pleasure, with an increasing number of higher-end wines capable of rivaling the best from other parts of France.

While there’s no denying the Languedoc’s checkered history, the last two decades have seen a noticeable shift to fine wine, with an emphasis on terroir. Ambitious growers have sought out vineyard sites with poor, well draining soils in hilly zones, curbed back on irrigation and the use of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, and looked to balance traditional production methods with technological advancements to craft wines with elegance, balance, and a clear sense of place. Today, the overall quality and variety of wines being made in the Languedoc is as high as ever.

Shaped like a crescent hugging the Mediterranean coast, the region boasts an enormous variety of soil types and microclimates depending on elevation, exposition, and relative distance from the coastline and the cooler foothills farther inland. While the warm Mediterranean climate is conducive to the production of reds, there are world-class whites and rosés to be found as well, along with stunning dessert wines revered by connoisseurs for centuries.

More from Languedoc-Roussillon or France

Discount Eligible $39.00
AT CART MAX
Discount Eligible $36.00
AT CART MAX
Discount Eligible $22.00
AT CART MAX
Discount Eligible $22.00
AT CART MAX
Discount Eligible $49.00
AT CART MAX
Discount Eligible $18.00
AT CART MAX
Discount Eligible $24.00
AT CART MAX
Discount Eligible $31.00
AT CART MAX
Discount Eligible $68.00
AT CART MAX
Discount Eligible $30.00
AT CART MAX
Discount Eligible $25.00
AT CART MAX
Where the newsletter started

Every three or four months I would send my clients a cheaply made list of my inventory, but it began to dawn on me that business did not pick up afterwards. It occurred to me that my clientele might not know what Château Grillet is, either. One month in 1974 I had an especially esoteric collection of wines arriving, so I decided to put a short explanation about each wine into my price list, to try and let my clients know what to expect when they uncorked a bottle. The day after I mailed that brochure, people showed up at the shop, and that is how these little propaganda pieces for fine wine were born.—Kermit Lynch

Read the whole story