Where to eat Pic Saint-Loup in Montpellier: 3 editor picks

The red of the garrigue slopes north of Montpellier, syrah-led with grenache and mourvèdre, grown under the limestone tooth of the Pic. Cold nights keep the acidity up and the pepper sharp.

The hills between Saint-Mathieu-de-Tréviers and Valflaunès were planted to vines long before quality was the point, and for a century they shipped bulk red north with everything else. The turn came in the 1980s and 1990s when growers pulled out high-yield varieties for syrah and mourvèdre and started bottling under their own names. Pic Saint-Loup won its own appellation in 2017. The altitude and the diurnal swing give the wines their signature: garrigue herbs, black pepper, and a freshness that Languedoc reds are not supposed to have. It is the bottle Montpellier reaches for when a visitor asks what the region tastes like.