Château de Lancyre Coteaux du Languedoc Pic St. Loup 2001

[Thraz]

This is a red. 13.5%, $9.93 at Spec's.

A little peppery, some soft tannins (a tiny bit chewy), good length, very nice. It tastes very much like a good Cotes du Rhone. I recommend it as a nice everyday wine. The website does not have this particular cuvée, their red wines all have an additional descriptive beyond C. du L., but Lancyre's Pic St. Loup reds are all a mix of syrah and grenache. This one certainly tastes like it is too. Very good QPR.

[wdonovan]

Am I right in deducing that Cd Languedoc wines lean toward the grenache end of the grenache / syrah mix? We love southern Rhones but see very few of the CdL's on the shelves.

[Thraz]

The main grapes in the CdL regulatory mix are mostly the same as the main Southern Rhone grapes. There are a number of sub-appellations, of which Pic St. Loup is one. Red Pic St. Loup allows grenache, syrah, mourvedre and cinsault - also carignan (10% max for the last two). However it could be 90% syrah and no grenache, or 90% grenache and no syrah, so it's hard to know if a particular bottle was made in a mainstream CdR style. Lancyre makes Pic St. Loup wines that seem to all be in the 50%syrah/50% grenache range, plus or minus. This one really tastes like a (good) CdR.

[TheEngineer]

I love wines from this region especially Pic ST Loup cuz of the value and cuz for me the wines are't and don't feel like mass produced wines or wines of particularly refined details. It's kinda like when you just want to go out for a messy burger...you want a messy burger...not a really nicely presented Kobe beef with proper garnishes and sauces that probably took someone 20 hours to make. Not to say that that is bad....but sometimes we just need to be carnal and satisfied.....

To this end, many selections at Kermit Lynch fit this bill for Pic st. Loup. Kinda like picking up a good country apple pie.......okay I'll stop...I'm #@!% hungry now....