Yannick Pelletier, "Blanc" 2019

A huge strength of the Languedoc, viticulturally speaking & perhaps counterintuitively, is… its hugeness. Long mired in “the wine world’s” general view of things as a flatland-dominant, hot ocean of plonk (harsh!), the Languedoc was maybe keeping its best secrets to itself. Within this unfairly large region (it is a politically drawn one, not a logically viticulturally-drawn one – a region that was even bigger (!) when it was bizarrely expanded to include a hyphenated bedfellow to the extreme south at Spain’s border, the Roussillon), there exist nooks and crannies of extreme ‘terroir’ variation, which really means you get sudden yet drastic shifts in elevation, stratigraphic composition, climatic posture, etc. Along the few vertiginous, schistous hillsides of the region, near Saint Chinian, Yannick Pelletier has – since 2004 – converted his life as a one-time wine merchant into that of a staple producer of pure, elegant Saint Chinian wines like no other. It was after a stint interning at the nearby legendary low-intervention estate of Saint Chinian, Domaine Léon Barral, that Yannick’s eyes (& heart) were opened to this other end of wine, one far from the chemical-heavy conventions of the Languedoc. The wines, then, present as no surprise: they are honest & balanced, wild within their own very neat frameworks. There is a real suave aspect to his wines, the kind of swagger begotten by rigorous vineyard work – they feel at extreme ease, especially this blanc of Terret that is at once long & rich yet still buoyed by acidity & saltiness, set for sunny sipping. The wine smacks as classy without being stuffy & we couldn’t be happier to carry it in the share.

A blend of indigenous varietal Terret Blanc and Terret Gris, as well as Grenache Blanc, Grenache Gris and Pinot Gris. After a brief maceration with the skins, the wine ferments with wild yeasts in stainless and ages briefly in tank. Bottled unfined, unfiltered with no SO2. Textured and chalky, with stone fruits on the palate and a briny finish.