Yannick Pelletier ‘l’Oíselet’ Rouge 2019

Location: France, Languedoc

Winemaker: Yannick Pelletier

Grapes: 75% Cinsault, 25% Grenache

Soil: schist, clay, limestone

Winemaking: Half of the Cinsault is destemmed and the other half is whole-cluster. Macerations last seven to 10 days. The wine is aged 18 months in cement vats before release.

‘L’Oiselet’: This wine is made within the Saint-Chinian appellationbut is intentionally declassified to Vin de France. Oiselet means "little bird".

From the importer Louis/Dressner: Yannick Pelletier's estate currently consists of 10 hectares in the Saint Chinian AOC that he has been working with since January 2004. He currently grows five varietals: Syrah(15%), Mourvedre (5%), Grenache (50%), Cinsault (16%) and Carignan (14%), and has recently acquired 0.5 ha of 50 year old Terret Blanc vines as well as some Terret Gris. The parcels are relatively distant from each other, which lets him take advantage of many different types of terroirs: 65% schist, 23% clay and limestone and 12% round stones. The youngest vines are 15, the oldest 70 and the estate is certified organic.

For the most part Yannick trains his vines in gobelet in the vines, which applies to the Grenache, Carignan and Cinsault. The Syrah is trained in Cordon de Royat, and normally he leaves six to eight spurs with one bud each.

The soil is worked with one or two plowings and a possible hoeing by hand. He fertilizes the soil with an organic compost; about 500 to 1500 kilos per hectare. Yannick and his team do as much of the work as they can manually, for what he describes as two reasons: the work is more thorough than if done mechanically, and also avoids the passage of tractors which pack down the soil.