Céleste Renault

In June 2024, I joined a group of journalists and winemakers for lunch at Atelier & Co., an oyster company in Loupian that offers tastings and dockside dining. The light at midday was intense, sparkly and flashing, and the busy port town of Sète shimmered across the lapping waters of the Étang de Thau. This shallow working lagoon yields 13,000 tons of oysters annually, nearly 10% of France’s total production. It’s also the entry to the Canal du Midi, a waterway connecting the Mediterranean to Toulouse where it links to the Canal de Garonne and westward to the Atlantic.

Picpoul d e Pinet producers had gathered to show their wines alongside huge platters of raw oysters and mussels steamed in a fragrant, oily broth. Céleste Renault was busy setting up the wines we would taste before lunch shifted our palates. The sun danced off the bottles and ice, raking across the contours of the world, making everything more three dimensional.

Céleste Renault detail — *Click any image to see it larger*

Picpoul de Pinet was granted AOC status in 2013, distinguishing itself from the larger Coteaux du Languedoc appellation. (It earned AOP status in 2017.) The wines are white only and must be made from 100% Piquepoul, an old, regional variety. They have gleaming acidity, lower alcohol, and citrusy, green apple flavors that make them pair well with seafood, raw or cooked. This focus on a single, varietal wine is unusual in for Languedoc appellations, most of which emphasize blends. The AOP codifies the traditional grape suited to this territory around the village of Pinet.

With her hands deep in the ice buckets, I assumed Céleste was herself a Piquepoul vigneronne. I learned she is instead the AOP’s first hired director. She trained as a lawyer, earning a Master’s in Wine and Spirits law from the University of Reims Champagne-Ardennes, and worked at the Syndicat des Vignobles de la Côte Vermeille, in the Roussillon, before joining Picpoul in March 2021. For Picpoul, she’s tasked with promoting and protecting the commercial and legal interests of the AOP.

Céleste is one of many women who labor in the financial, regulatory, promotional, and commercial engine of the Languedoc wine industry. Not making wine, but making sure wine gets made — and sold.