Tete-a-Tete Terret Blanc | Languedoc, France

This is a wine to spark conversation, encouraging drinkers or thinkers to draw up a chair and share a bottle to discuss France’s best kept secret.

Terret Blanc, one of the Languedoc’s oldest and unique varieties, is grown in the same vineyards as the now famous Picpoul de Pinet. It has long been prized for its ability to hold onto its acidity in the heat of a Mediterranean summer. Historically, it has been used as a blending component to provide zest to flatter wines or a base for local brandy and vermouth.

The Terret vineyards are close to the producer’s Picpoul ones overlooking the oyster beds of the Basin de Thau, the saltwater lagoon that stretches from Marseillan in the east to Sète in the west. This location, plus the clay and limestone with quartz pebbles soils, gives a saline edge which adds further interest to its clean mineral profile. These characteristics ensure that the wine acts as the perfect foil to the local cuisine of mussels and oysters harvested from the lagoon.

For vinification, the grapes are crushed with direct pressing followed by cold settling. Inoculation with selected dry yeast and fermentation at a temperature around 16 °C. Ageing is on the lees, finishing with bentonite fining and crossflow filtration.