The AOP Picpoul de Pinet has been booming for several years. Cooperative cellars and winegrowers work on a tight schedule and have no stock. A rare performance in these times of wine crisis. But soon, the small appellation will be crossed by the new Montpellier-Perpignan LGV and will be reduced by 10% of its surface area.
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It’s a little paradise for producing wine. The AOP Picpoul de Pinet is nestled between Mèze and Marseillan on a plateau lulled by the spray of the Thau lagoon.
Olivier Azan has been producing organic wine there since the 80s. But recently, his paradise has been troubled.
Here, today, we are in the middle of the vineyards, but in a few years, there will be major works and the TGV line.
Olivier Azan, winegrower in Pinet in Hérault.
The route of the high-speed line project between Montpellier-Béziers and Perpignan.
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© LNMP
The vineyard crossed by the New Montpellier-Perpignan Line (LNMP)
Before the end of 2029, work on the Montpellier-Perpignan LGV will begin in this sector, in the middle of the vineyards. The railway line will literally cut the Picpoul vineyard in two.
The Picpoul de Pinet appellation covers 1,400 hectares. And the TGV will expropriate us on around 100 hectares. I have 30 hectares of vineyard, I am going to lose 5.
-Olivier Azan, Domaine Petit Roubié in Pinet.
The future LGV will cut Picpoul’s production by 10%. A disaster for an appellation whose success on the markets borders on insolence in these times of crisis for local viticulture.
Pinet (Hérault) – the AOP Picpoul de Pinet appellation is 1,400 hectares of vineyard and 85,000 hectoliters per year – January 2025.
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© FTV
The 23 individual producers and the 4 cooperatives sell all of the 85,000 hectoliters produced each year.
“We are lucky to be a little alien in Languedoc. We market our upcoming vintage from January-February. And we sell the entire production” explains Céleste Renault, director of the Defense and Management Organization of the AOP Picpoul of Pinet.
The winegrowers of the appellation intend to remind the negotiators of SNCF Réseau, which manages and builds the railway infrastructure in France, of this commercial success to obtain sufficient compensation to compensate for their loss. And even a little more…
We cannot prevent the LGV from passing through, it is European infrastructure. But we will fight for compensation. We must also help us replant, perhaps rethink irrigation… and consider other problems to come with the presence of this line.
Olivier Azan, winegrower in Pinet in Hérault.
Work on the Montpellier-Perpignan LGV must begin before the end of 2029. The commissioning of phase 1 of the line between Montpellier and Béziers is planned before 2034.
