Domaine Jones Vieilles Vignes Fitou 2020

Description

Domaine Jones Vieilles Vignes Fitou is a superb red wine made by Katie Jones in the Languedoc Roussillon wine-growing region of France.

Domaine Jones is owned and run by Katie Jones. Katie was the Sales and Marketing Director for the Mont Tauch co-operative in the Languedoc for nearly twenty years until she fell in love with a small 3.5 hectare vineyard in the Maury Valley in 2007. The wine-making philosophy at Domaine Jones is to employ traditional, down–to-earth farming methods and innovative winemaking techniques to capture the characteristics of the terroir and the local area. Domaine Jones wines are only produced in very small quantities – this truly is boutique wine-making. Katie Jones has recently acquired some more vineyards in the village of Tuchan and many of are planted with low yielding old vines with some up to 100 years old. They vineyards are planted with a mix of different grape varieties, co-planted in the same vineyard in place, which was a common way of planting in the early part of last century.

Katie initially made Domaine Jones Grenache Noir and a white Grenache Gris from her own vineyards and later purchased a vineyard in Fitou. Today she even more projects including the Along Came Jones range. Fitou is one of the largest appellations in the Languedoc-Roussillon and has been responsible for a large volume of some not so great wine. Fortunately there are plenty of small, high quality producers, like Domaine Jones, who are producing some great Fitou, amongst other wines.

The grapes for Domaine Jones Vieilles Vignes Fitou are harvested from 20 vineyards owned by Katie scattered about the village of Tuchan. The secret to the quality of Katie’s Fitou probably has a lot to owe to the vine age – most of the vines are over 100 years old bringing freshness, depth and a beautiful texture to the wine. The grapes are sourced from small plots planted with just one grape variety on different soil types. Each plot is vinified separately, this allows for more control of the blending. Due to the different ripening times the grapes are picked and vinified separately. All grapes are hand picked in crates of 12kg. Open 400 litre barrels were used to ferment the Syrah and the Carignan and the rest was fermented in small stainless steel vats. After around 10 days the grapes were pressed and a portion of of the wine was transferred to French oak barrels of 228L of one and two years wine. The wine was matured in oak  for 10 months before blending and bottling.

Domaine Jones Vieilles Vignes Fitou is a traditional Fitou blend of Carignan, Grenache and Syrah grapes.