L’Hortus de Bergerie Pic Saint Loup 2019

This wine came to me last week as part of my Wine Club Tasting evening, carried out Zoom. Due to the fact that I wasn’t planning to drink all the bottle in the following days, my Coravin was used, and the wine placed back on the rack at the end of the evening,

At the tasting, it scored highly, on flavour, acidity, body, and length, although we didn’t take a vote as such, it was probably the highlight of the night. So, last night I returned to the shelf, and pulled the cork on this. I’m glad I did,

I have a confession to make – Rosé has never been my go to wine, even in the warm summer days, sat out on the balcony enjoying the airs. My prejudice would always have been for a light red, a Pinot or a Gamay, or maybe a chilled white, Rosé would have come a poor third in the past. That changed last year, as I was introduced to a number of excellent Rosés at a tasting event, and my views have softened towards the style.

This particular wine comes from Domaine de L’Hortus de Bergerie in Pic Saint Loup in  the Languedoc region of France. I have enjoyed their Syrah and their Syrah/Mourvedre blended Reds before now, excellent wines in their own right, so my expectations were high that this would be a worthy entry to my Rosé list. It didn’t disappoint.

The wine is a blend of Syrah, Mourvedre and Grenache and is pressed lightly and vinified in much the same way that a white wine would be, before spending some four  months in steel tanks, before bottling at the end of winter, and released to the world.

The wine is a healthy shade of salmon pink, quite deep, and the nose displayed red berry fruits, with a hint of something spicy awaiting the taste buds. Fresh and crisp, chilled to to 20/20 rule I apply to Light Reds & Whites (Reds twenty minutes in the fridge before opening, whites in the fridge for the day, and taken out 20 minutes before drinking) – In this case I treated it as a White, so nicely chilled…

The initial acidity was medium in strength, delivering a tang to the mouth without being overpowering, subsiding to produce those red fruits, strawberries, raspberries and the tang reminiscent of red grapefruit. The spiciness was likely emanating from the relatively high level of alcohol for a Rosé at 14%, and added to the length of the finish, and left a lasting impression on me.

Overall, an excellent example of Quality Rosé – Criticisms of some Rosé wines tend to comment that the wine was watery. This is certainly not the case with this wine, certainly medium bodied, leaning towards a full roundness in the final assessment. We finished the bottle with dinner of simple grilled port steaks, with an apple sauce and potatoes tossed in olive oil and black pepper, and the wine held up well across the food. 

Highly Recommend: –