Here’s how Katie Jones, British expat (originally from Leicestershire) winemaker and owner of the Domaine Jones in the border area between Languedoc and Roussillon explains her work and what her wine estate and winery is about:
“Although it sometimes feels like yesterday, it was actually back in 2008 that I took the plunge and bought a vineyard here in the Languedoc.
I’d lived and worked here for many years. But it’s one thing to work as I did in the wine trade, quite another as I hadn’t to make wine.
True there have been moments – mainly when my back was killing me and the unforgiving Tramontane wind was threatening to blow me all the way to Toulouse – that made me wonder.
But not often or for very long, because things couldn’t really have gone much better. People who should know have said some very nice things about our wines. They’ve won awards. I’ve bought more vineyards. We’ve started our very own wine club. And as well as falling in love with area, I fell for fellow wine maker, Jean Marc – a case of Me and Monsieur Jones, you might say.
To say I look for vineyards no-one else wants would only be a slight exaggeration.
Most other growers around here wouldn’t be interested in my modest 12 hectares of vines spread across vineyards in Maury (my first), Paziols and Tuchan.
The sites are too small, too remote and too much like hard work. Exactly the way I like them. I’m looking for low yields with high quality, and the rather poor, sloping ground that the very old, traditional vines cling to gives me just that.
It means most of the work including harvesting has to be done by hand, but the results are more than worth the toil.
Domaine Jones started out with a wine making philosophy to which we’ve stuck. It’s to vinify the vineyards separately, rather than mixing, so we know the quality coming from each.
This method requires a lot of space, so we’ve bought something that has it in abundance, an old train shed.
Finished in 1905 in the village of Tuchan, it was used as overnight accommodation for the Tuchan Express, a steam train that could reach speeds of up to 5mph.
Closed in 1935, this much-loved local landmark, once renovated, is to have a new lease of life as our winery.
And a high-security one at that, given the spiteful vandalism we suffered in 2013 when we lost our entire white wine production.
We only grow traditional grape varieties, some of them extremely rare.
Carignan, for example, fond of our poor, dry limestone and schist, has always provided the backbone to Fitou, for which the Languedoc has long been known.
While Lledoner Pelut, otherwise rather unkindly known as Hairy Grenache, once plentiful and thriving here, came as a bit of a find when we took over an old vineyard in Tuchan.”
Wine Reviews of Domaine Jones Wines
2017 Domaine Jones Vieilles Vignes Grenache Noir, Cotes Catalanes IGP
Score: 90/100 points
Overall Review Notes & Tasting Impressions
A deep and dark Grenache red wine, featuring the ripe and generous cooked red berries and cooked apple (compote) aromas we love to find in the Southern French grape variety. Dark chocolate and raspberry and blackberry jam make for a charming opulent aromatic profile.
With a rich oily body, tannins are soft overall but, helped with a biting acidity feeling like crystals of acids into the wine, come through a little edgy as the wine develop on the palate.
The ripe and generous dark fruit, slightly jammy yet lively red berry-like flavors, give a powerful and comforting fresh, fruity, and dynamic tasting experience.
A concentrated and lively Grenache, fruit-driven, delivering an explosion of bursting fruit and mild spicy flavors, with a convincing sweet and sour whole. The big-hearted Grenache personality is obvious…
2016 Domaine Astruc Jones ‘Along Came Jones’ Double Identity Syrah, Vin de France
Score: 91+/100 points
Overall Reviews Notes & Tasting Impressions
A powerful and concentrated, dark Syrah wine, featuring a heap of peppery spicy notes of black pepper combined with fresh blackberry and raspberry to the nose. It’s lively and ripe to smell at, helped with sweet oaky notes of vanilla and smoky caramel.
The wine is smooth, dense and velvety to the palate, with a lively acidity rounded up by an oily body and a compact tannic structure, for a very balanced and sophisticated whole.
Flavors are dry and rather savory, yet with the fruity generosity, pungent ripe dark berry fruit notes that you expect from a Southerly French Languedoc wine.
An expressive, and surprisingly and positively complete single vineyard Languedoc wine that demonstrates again how successfully Syrah can be grown in this part of the Mediterranean coast.
2017 Domaine Astruc Vieilles Vignes Grenache Gris White
Score: 86/100 points
Overall Reviews Notes & Tasting Impressions
With a bright lemon-yellow color, this Grenache Gris shines with lime and zesty apricot dominant aromas to the nose. Fennel and hints of vegetal, green capsicum characters make for a lifted, herbal aromatic profile.
This is a dry and crisp white wine with vibrant acidity, and a burst of lemon and grapefruit flavors to the palate, a slightly oily texture for an overall sour and fruity tasting experience. A wine to pair with summery salads and entrees, tapas and barbecues, and invitation to the nonchalant worriless life of Southern France…
2017 Domaine Astruc Jones Along Came Jones ‘Difference’ Grenache Noir Carignan, Fitou
Score: 86/100 points
Overall Reviews Notes & Tasting Impressions
With a bright and vibrant purple red color, this Languedoc red is rather shy on the nose, only featuring discrete wine aromas of fresh red berries and hints of pepper.
The palate is soft with a solid acidity underlining zesty flavors of raspberry made even more lively by notes of lime. Tannins are a little edgy, on a dry red with a slightly bitter finish.
An enjoyable, quaffable and easy red, well made and punchy, spicy and fruit-driven.
2013 Domaine Astruc Jones Along Came Jones ‘Sleeping Beauty’ Grenache Gris, Vin de France
Score: 91/100 points
Overall Reviews Notes & Tasting Impressions
This is a surprisingly and intriguing white wine, just from looking at the label, the 2013 vintage (a 5-year-old Languedoc white! Not very common) and the Grenache Gris grape variety, not often seen bottled by itself as a varietal wine!
The aromatic profile is not less intriguing. It’s nutty and waxy in there. Beeswax and walnut. But don’t get me wrong, it’s also lively and fruity as well. Pungent notes of dried apricots and pear liqueur! What is going on here? A rare smelling experience, but a pleasant one at that.
The palate reveals that we are indeed here with a distinctive, unique white wine. It’s nutty indeed, somewhat tasting like an Amareto liqueur, so much walnut and almond flavor!
It shares traits with Fino Sherries too. Dry, mineral, lemony, with a bright acidity and a salivating salty finish.
Gorgeous flavors of orange peel and orange blossom, with loads of nutmeg and white pepper, make for a complex combination of varied fruity, spicy, waxy, and nutty flavors, for a rather long and layered finish.
A curiosity of a white wine, loaded with oxidative and oaky characters, but such a pleasant and satisfying experience to taste a wine in its own style, yet featuring such a harmony and balance of flavors!
2016 Domaine Jones Vieilles Vignes Fitou, Languedoc
Score: 92/100 points
Overall Reviews Notes & Tasting Impressions
A red wine with a gorgeously dense and dark red color indeed with a heap of purple hues intensifying and deepening the appearance.
The nose is at first rather closed and tight, under the influence of what appears to the reductive character of Syrah.
Let the wine breathe and allow it some aeration and decanting a good half-hour before serving, and you will be rewarded by deep and intense notes of dark blackberry, sweet vanilla and caramel, and a lifted black pepper edge to the aromatic profile.
This is such a soft and unctuous wine to taste. Dry with a good acidity, dense and velvety, almost silky tannins. Harmonious balance to the palate, on a concentrated texture, yet always feeling dry and salivating, never heavy or overripe.
Flavors are those of sweet spices with delicate oaky vanilla and touches of wood smoke.
This feels like a very young wine with a great ageing potential, that certainly deserves another 4-5 years to reach further depth and get closer to its full potential.
A generous, soft and opulent red in a typical dry and ripe but savory fashion as we love to see and enjoy out of Languedoc, France.
Enjoy 🙂
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