Domaine Jones Les Parcelles Blanc – 2022

Katie Jones is a quirky, humorous and very skilled English winemaker who has been making great wine in the Southwest corner of France for over 25 years. She specialises in rescuing neglected plots of extremely old vines and through a combination of passion, hard work and real winemaking talent is able to produce amazing wines from them.

This white wine is a blend of  important local white grapes from the Fitou region – Grenache Gris, Macabeu, Grenache Blanc and Muscat – all grown on vines averaging 50-75 years of age. There is no “white Fitou” appellation, but if there were, this would be Katie’s Fitou Blanc.

Les Parcelles has a smooth, creamy texture and fairly full body. It has a gentle bite of spicy acidity which gives delightful freshness. You can distinguish aromas of pear, exotic fruits, and almond blossom, supported by a subtle touch of oak aging that imparts a beautiful structure and a smoky note without overpowering.

Best enjoyed chilled as an aperitif or paired with fish in creamy sauce, a slow-cooked fennel chicken stew, or even warm goats’ cheese with honey and walnuts.

Only 250 cases were produced.

“From the first note of green caraway on the nose, and then the scent of fennel, hints of liquorice and hawthorn blossom, lemon oil, this wine tastes of spring. And it carries its place in every molecule. It tastes of wild flowers, of delicately bitter herbs, of pungent olive oil, of black salt. Of pickled lemons and citron. It’s a wine that hisses its salty, lacy spray of flavours wide and rhythmic like waves running in and drawing back from the beach. When it floods in, you’ll taste the bitterness and the intensity. When it draws back, it leaves the citrus behind. Complex and endlessly interesting – don’t serve too cold as it crushes the flavours, and no hurry to drink it.”17++/20pts Tamlyn Currin MW for jancisrobinson.com