Toggle Navigation Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant Your Cart
Close
Shop the Spring Sale! ⇒
SHIPPING INCLUDED 12+ BOTTLES OR $199+ →
Home Shop All Wines


Main Menu
Shop All Wines

Producers

Producers

Producers

Shop All Wines
Shop All Wines
Shop All Wines
Shop All Wines
Shop All Wines
Shop All Wines
Close

Notify me

Fill out your info and we will notify you when the 2020 Pic Saint Loup Rouge “Sainte Agnès” Ermitage du Pic Saint Loup is back in stock or when a new vintage becomes available.


2020 Pic Saint Loup Rouge “Sainte Agnès”

Ermitage du Pic Saint Loup

I’ve said it before, and it bears repeating: Pic Saint Loup is perhaps the most underrated and undervalued appellation in all of France. Just as the Pic itself dramatically rises above the Languedocien landscape, its sheer façades culminating in a majestic limestone summit, the wines here benefit from an exceptional terroir that allows them to tower over the region’s sea of vin ordinaire.
            The three Ravaille brothers who make up Ermitage du Pic Saint Loup—Pierre, Jean-Marc, and Xavier—have gone to great lengths to reap the full potential from these stone-ridden slopes. Their conversion to biodynamics proved crucial, allowing for living soils better able to resist heat and drought, ultimately resulting in purer wines with lower alcohol and greater aromatic finesse. Farming some of the best vineyards in the appellation—cool, high-elevation sites littered with calcareous rubble—certainly doesn’t hurt, either.
            Their Cuvée Sainte Agnès demonstrates the potential for wines of uncommon elegance in the Languedoc’s most temperate appellation. Syrah planted here shows a kinship with the northern Rhône, echoing aromas of black olive and violets found in bottles from Clape and Allemand the Ravailles fondly hold in their impressive personal cellar. Grenache and Mourvèdre fill out the blend to provide an appropriate Mediterranean soulfulness, but this bottling is more about restraint and perfume than bombastic fruit. Savory and floral, with bright accents of orange zest, it soars over the palate with grace and finishes with a freshness reminiscent of cool stone.
            If a stunning 1999 opened at the domaine recently is any indication, the best wines from this appellation can go the distance and stand toe to toe with southern France’s finest reds. The Ravaille brothers’ Sainte Agnès is proof that it is time to start paying attention to Pic Saint Loup.

Anthony Lynch

$32.00
Wine Type: red
Vintage: 2020
Bottle Size: 750mL
Blend: 50% Syrah, 40% Grenache, 10% Mourvèdre
Appellation: 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 in foudres and barriques
Farming: Biodynamic (practicing)
Alcohol: 14%

More from this Producer or Region

About 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

2019 Corbières Blanc
“La Bégou”

Maxime Magnon  France  |  Languedoc-Roussillon  |  Corbières

$57.00

2018 Faugères “Valinière”

Domaine Leon Barral  France  |  Languedoc-Roussillon  |  Faugères

$90.00

2020 Banyuls “Rimage”

Domaine La Tour Vieille  France  |  Languedoc-Roussillon  |  Banyuls

$30.00

2020 Collioure Rouge “La Pinède”

Domaine La Tour Vieille  France  |  Languedoc-Roussillon  |  Collioure

$30.00

2021 Languedoc Blanc “Aupilhac”

Domaine d’Aupilhac  France  |  Languedoc-Roussillon  |  Languedoc

$30.00

2021 Pays d’Oc Rouge

Mas Champart  France  |  Languedoc-Roussillon  |  Vin de Pays d'Oc

$22.00

2021 Corbières Rosé “Gris de Gris”

Domaine de Fontsainte  France  |  Languedoc-Roussillon  |  Corbières

$20.00

2020 Collioure Rouge “Puig Ambeille”

Domaine La Tour Vieille  France  |  Languedoc-Roussillon  |  Collioure

$35.00

2019 Faugères

Domaine Leon Barral  France  |  Languedoc-Roussillon  |  Faugères

$47.00

2021 Pic Saint Loup Rosé

Ermitage du Pic Saint Loup  France  |  Languedoc-Roussillon  |  Pic Saint Loup

$22.00

2016 Faugères “Valinière”

Domaine Leon Barral  France  |  Languedoc-Roussillon  |  Faugères

$81.00

2019 Faugères “Jadis”

Domaine Leon Barral  France  |  Languedoc-Roussillon  |  Faugères

$68.00

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

Where the newsletter started
Close
Close

Add a new credit card

Please complete the form below.

Cancel
Close

Add a new shipping address

Please complete your shipping address below.
Cancel
Close
Close

Warnings


Drinking distilled spirits, beer, coolers, wine and other alcoholic beverages may increase cancer risk, and, during pregnancy, can cause birth defects. For more information go to www.P65Warnings.ca.gov/alcohol


Many food and beverage cans have linings containing bisphenol A (BPA), a chemical known to cause harm to the female reproductive system. Jar lids and bottle caps may also contain BPA. You can be exposed to BPA when you consume foods or beverages packaged in these containers. For more information, go to www.P65Warnings.ca.gov/bpa