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Hints Of Fruit Come With Dry Goodness

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By FREDRIC KOEPPEL | Special to The Memphis News

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Last week’s wine was such a high-octane example of drool fuel that this week perhaps we should dial back the gonzo meter and try a wine you could take home to your silver-haired mother and say, “Ma, this is the wine I want to marry!”

The Hugues Beaulieu Picpoul de Pinet 2008 is fashioned in the Coteaux de Languedoc in the south of France completely from picpoul grapes, also known as folle blanche. (Many grapes go by different names in Europe, even within different regions of the same country. To add to the confusion, there are red versions called picpoul noir and picpoul gris. Picpoul derives from an Old French word meaning “lipstinger,” because of the grape’s high acidity. And now we say “Goodbye” to the educational portion of our program.)

Here’s a white wine with body and soul, though it goes about its task of matching with fresh seafood or goat cheese and herbs with delicacy and grace. Made all in stainless steel, to retain brightness and immediacy, the wine delivers green apple and pear with a touch of fig and a hint of honey, though it’s totally, almost challengingly dry. Flavors of roasted lemon and thyme are supported by a blade of keen acidity and a mineral element that resembles damp limestone and shale.

Prise open those oysters, Bud, and don’t cut yourself with that knife!