Here's a Name You Don't Hear Every Day

2004 Picpoul de Pinet, Hugues Beaulieu, $6.99
Jen’s Notes

Shane and I tried our first Picpoul (a rare white Rhone varietal) at the Rhone Rangers tasting in March. That one was from Tablas Creek and, like all of Tablas Creek wines, was very good. I had been curious to try another.

We snagged this Picpoul at K&L several weeks ago. Shane was a bit skeptical, but for $6.99, we decided that it was worth trying. I had put the wine in the refrigerator overnight, so it was initially too cold. After about 20 minutes of thawing on the table, the wine showed complex herbal and tropical fruit aromas. The flavors reinforced this impression nicely with hints of kiwi and sweet, musky spices. For such a light wine, it was surprisingly mouth-filling and sumptuous mid-palate. Interestingly, there was the barest suggestion of botrytized creaminess even though this wine was not botrytized. In fact, it is steely dry.

The flavors stay mid-palate, and the finish is short. All in all, an interesting wine, full of can’t-quite-place-it flavors. A good choice for those hot summer evenings, assuming we ever get any in San Francisco.