Hi Tamlyn
I enjoyed your article on Picpoul de Pinet. Re. UK ‘discovery’ of the wine – Yapp Brothers boldly lay claim to being the first importers of Picpoul de Pinet back in 2003. Jason Yapp and I were introduced to it by Jean-Pierre Boisson (then Mayor of Châteauneuf-du-Pape as well as leading Domaine Pere Caboche) over lunch at Le Phare restaurant – a revolving tower on the beach near Montpellier – during a break from the ‘Vinisud’ wine fair. We first shipped it that year. If anyone else planted the flag before that, let them make themselves known!
Best
Tom Ashworth
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Tom, thank you so much for flagging this up! What a great nugget of history.
I found an article of Jancis’s called Some sizzlingly good southern French wines dating back to June 2005, and I wonder if the Picpouls in there were the ones you were importing!
Meantime, if it’s not contested, the flag is yours. Look what you’ve done… (And look at those 2005 prices!)
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Hi Tam
We had a push into the Languedoc during 2003-2005 where we picked up Faugeres, St Chinian, Picpoul, Cotes du Thongue, Pic St Loup - all of whom we still ship. As JR’s article suggests, we saw it as gvfm - as did the likes of Les Caves and SVS.
Best
Tom
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Marcel OrfordWilliams of the Wine Society may not read this but from conversations with Guy Bascou, at Domaine de Condamine des Eveques, he may be a key person. Guy Bascou headed up the syndicate at a key period and the Wine Society’s Picpoul de Pinet comes from there (on the Picpoul / Cotes de Thongue border) . Bascou credits his friend Marcel a lot but I don’t know that the Wone Society preceded others on this one.
Chapeaux all around, though, for creating a genuine wine consumption break-through in the UK wine industry.
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