Domaine Jones – Fitou, Languedoc Roussillon
Katie Jones is an English lady who followed her dream and set up her own wine domaine in the beautiful, rugged, windswept hills around Tuchan in Fitou in south west France. There she fell in love not only with the region’s wonderful old vines but also with local winemaker Jean-Marc, to whom she is now married!
She has a clear goal; to restore old, neglected vineyards to their former magnificent glory and produce wines which are packed with the flavours of this remote corner of Languedoc-Roussillon.
Since she bottled her first wine in 2009, she has won many impressive awards and her wines have received much excellent press acclaim. This has enabled her to expand her portfolio of vineyards to 14 (as of 2021) and a total of 12 hectares across the regions of Maury and Fitou. All are small, all have their own unique character, and all are vinified separately so that Katie truly understands the style and quality potential of each vineyard.
Her old vines are self-standing bush vines which have to be tended and harvested manually each year; there are no short cuts possible, so the work in the vineyard is physically demanding and never ending. Her red grapes consist of Carignan, Grenache Noir and the wonderfully-named “Hairy Grenache” (aka Llledoner Pelut), with white grapes Grenache Blanc, Grenache Gris, Macabeu and Muscat. All are native to this region and all perfectly adapted to the warm, sunny, windy climate and infertile limestone and schist soils.
In 2013 she purchased an old, disused train shed which since 1905 has been one of the landmarks of the area. She now uses this as her winery, which is appropriate in that it has as much personality as her delicious, great value, character-packed wines!
