PRESS REVIEWS


Scotland on Sunday, Brian Elliott - 18th September 2016

2014 Domaine Jones, Grenache Gris, Cotes Catalanes
'This wine centres on spicy quince and greengage fruit with herbal depth, gentle acidity and that savoury mineral texture that southern France does so well.'

2014 La Perle Rare White
'This single vineyard version ... has touches of sage, sweeter spices, oranges and orchard fruits.' 

2013 Domaine Jones Fitou
'Here cranberry, cherry and prune fruit is neatly supported by hints of chocolate, clove and tobacco with fresh acidity and firm tannins.'

2013 Les Perles Carignan
' In this premium Carignan the minerality acquires suggestions of slate and embellishes the wine's dense, bramble fruit with cocoa components that add complexity to this stylish part of a quartet of distinctive and impressive wines.'

Raise a glass with Andy Cronshaw: Manchester Evening News, Rochdale Observer, Rossendale Free Press (May 2016)

‘JUST as Leicestershire has a football team that's punching above its weight, there's a wine-maker from the area whose production is small but very beautiful. Katie Jones moved to the Languedoc from Leicestershire to work for the Mont Tauch Co-op more than 20 years ago. After putting in her wine-making apprenticeship over the next decade, she eventually bought a vineyard on higher slopes nearby in the Maury Valley. But the grapes turned out to be different from what she'd expected; there was Carignan, Muscat and Grenache Gris.

Rather than sell her grapes back to the co-op, Katie decided to go it alone and make her own wine. Her very first vintage won acclaim from wine critics and Katie went on to buy another plot in the village of Tuchan in Fitou where there were old vines of Syrah, Carignan and Grenache. Her first vintage of Fitou earned praise from American wine critic Robert Parker, who awarded it 92 points. Katie has coined some of her wines La Perle Rare - a super-premium range of wines made in one vineyard producing just one barrel a year.’



Domaine Jones Blanc 2014

'Another wine made exclusively from Grenache Gris...very impressive stuff, with herby aromas and pear drops on the nose. The palate is again rotund but delicious with enough acidity to balance the hefty flavours.'

Domaine Jones Fitou 2013
'I'm not sure you'll find a better Fitou at the moment than this wine. A bend of old vine Grenache, Syrah and Carignan, it breathes out savoury, herbal notes and elegant, blackberry fruit.'

Les Perles Carignan 2013
'A 100 percent Carignan made from very old vines. (100 years old). This is a big wine that will match hearty stews. I paired it with a goat tagine. Notes of garrigue herbs give way to a juicy, ripe palate full of plummy, figgy fruit.'


La Perle Rare Blanc Grenache Gris 2014
'To say that I enjoyed this wine would be an understatement of vast proportions. It's certainly the most accomplished wine I have ever tasted made from Grenache Gris. Grenache Gris and Blanc can have a tendency to produce fat wines whose lack of acidity can make them taste less impressive with each taste. This wine however suffers from no blowsiness despite its immense power. Seductive and aromatic, there's a floral nose infused by fennel and tempered by a buttery lick of oak. The palate is slightly waxy with a wholesome mouthful of soft ripe pear and candied lemon. It's all brought into shape by slaking acidity. A title-winning effort.'


Wales Online, Neil Cammies, 12th August 2016

Domaine Jones Fitou 2013, France


 ‘'Katie Jones has had to deal with quite a bit in her wine-making career, but this doesn’t stop her making an impeccable drop.Her DOMAINE JONES FITOU 2013 (£13.50, The Wine Society) is a classic blend of carignan, grenache and syrah, resulting in an inky dark colour in the glass.The spicy bouquet of the darkest fruits has touches of blackberries and tarter blackcurrants. In the mouth the fruit is held in line with the structured tannins and a smidge of spicy wood tones.The warming black pepper heat continues through to the long, earthy finish. An opulent style of Fitou from Katie’s vineyard in the village of Tuchan.'
Tim Atkin MW www.timatkin.com 10th August 2016

2014 Domaine Jones Grenache Gris, IGP Côtes Catalanes, Languedoc-Roussillon (13.5%);

 ''Englishwoman Katie Jones' old vine releases from the Maury area are improving with every vintage and are now some of the best in the Roussillon. This Grenache Gris shows the variety's focus, minerality and herbal edge, complemented by notes of pear and beeswax and the faintest kiss of oak.' 91 points. £13.50, The Wine Society.
For the full article please visit:  http://www.timatkin.com/reviews?1697


Tim Atkin MW www.timatkin.com 10th August 2016
2013 Domaine Jones, Les Perles de Jones Carignan Vieilles Vignes, Vin de France, Languedoc Roussillon (14.5%): ''Carignan is one of those under-rated grapes that can make fantastic wines if the vines are old and grown in a propitious terroir. This is on the ripe side, but it's not top heavy in the slightest. Damson and blueberry fruit flavours are complemented by minerality and acidity and a wild herb-like note. Surprisingly refreshing for a wine of this ripeness.' 92 points.
For the full article please visit:  http://www.timatkin.com/reviews?1699


The Daily Telegraph, Victoria Moore

14th May 2016

Domaine Jones 2013 Fitou ,France (14.5%; The Wine Society £13.50; Fareham Wine Shop £15.25; Campbells of Leyburn, £15.99; Nethergate Wines, £15.99; £81/case of six; domainejones.com);

‘Katie’s top-end fitou: a fine, atmospheric red made from carignan from 100-year-old vines, grenache and syrah, with gentle oak and is open and rustic, all savoury undergrowth, figs, and a blissful sensation of depth and lightness at once. “Ah,” says Katie as we taste, “This smells like home!” Love it.’


Domaine Jones Blanc Grenache Gris 2014 Côtes Catalanes, France (13.5%); The Wine Society, £13.50; £90/case of six; domainejones.com’:  ‘A layered white from the first vineyard that Katie bought with her parents and also the wine she lost in 2012 when vandals opened the taps on her vats. It’s diffuse, diaphanous and herbal, like a cloud of perfumed summer air. About 10 per cent is matured in old oak – you can’t taste it but it adds texture. Utterly beautiful.


Domaine Jones Muscat Moelleux 2015 France (11%; Naked Wines, available to Wine Angels only at £11.99 for 50cl): ‘A gentle, sweet muscat, fragrant like sweet peas and freesia, and without the heaviness or the oppressive perfume you find in some muscat wines. “I didn’t want to make a wine that was too overpowering,” says Katie. She hasn’t.’

For the full article please visit: 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/food-and-drink/wine/sabotage-and-romance-an-english-winemaker-on-what-its-really-lik/

WineWriting.com, Richard Mark James, 10th May 2016

Domaine Jones Fitou 2014  

''Old vine Carignan, Grenache, Syrah from 15 small plots; 14.5%) - Concentrated (blue)berry fruit with uplifting crunchy vs sweet profile mix, lively spicy and powerful finish. £87- £95 case of 6 (depending on mix).’

'Blanc Barrique 2010 (Grenache gris, 13.5%) - The follow up vintage to apparently a 'by accident' barrel-aged white, made in limited quantities, this is quite oaky to start yet has delicious nutty oxidised and oily characters and rounded texture, unusual and tasty. £80 for 6.'

For the full article please visit:  http://www.winewriting.com/2016/05/france-wines-of-moment.html 

Helen McGinn, ‘Knackered Mother’ -  writing in Food Stories (April 2016)

'For years Katie worked in the UK wine industry here. One day she decided she wanted to make wine not sell it, so she moved to the Languedoc in Southern France and bought a vineyard. Since then she's gone on to buy two more small vineyards, winning a cabinet's worth of awards along the way and marrying a fellow winemaker along the way. "A case of me and Monsieur Jones" as she so aptly puts it. If you' love a big red, you'll fall for her Fitou.’




JANCIS ROBINSON 

Underrated gems from Roussillon

18 Mar 2014 by Richard Hemming

JONES

Jones 2013 IGP Côtes Catalanes 16.5 Drink 2014-2016
Grenache Gris. 4,000 bottles. Vat sample. Light apple and citrus character with a bit of floral blossom flavour. Honeyed and succulent. Smooth, foody texture. (RH)

Macabeu from Touchon. 1,200 bottles. Really lovely scent – almonds, peaches, apricots. Really delicious fruit. Such delicacy yet really well defined flavours – typically south-west France but with gorgeous purity and lightness of touch. (RH)

Jones, Barrique 2009 Vin de France 16.5 Drink 2013-2015
Grenache Gris aged four years in (one) new oak barrel – unreleased at the time, because it was too oaky. Three years later it was re-tasted and sold (in 50cl bottles) to the Swedish restaurant market. Only 20 cases left!
Really lovely nose – oaky, yes, but there is plenty of fruit, remarkably. Such a curiosity – lovely supple fruit and toastiness. In fact, it tastes a little bit like mature Hunter Semillon. Lovely! (RH)

Picked at 16% potential alcohol. 90 g/l RS. Fragrant, lively, really gorgeous balance – not too much sweetness, A little pétillance really adds to the structure – pure pleasure. (RH)

Jones 2012 IGP Côtes Catalanes 16.5 Drink 2014-2020
90% Grenache, 10% Carignan. Soft, peppery and quite light – certainly a feminine version of the Roussillon Grenache model – thanks to a shorter than usual maceration (10 days). Smooth, drinkable, juicy. (RH)

Jones 2012 Fitou 17 Drink 2014-2024
40% 100 year old Carignan, 30% Grenache, 30% Syrah. Effortless black fruit – so rare to get such smoothness and succulence. Nothing rustic about this – but there is a bit of tannic pinch on the finish. Great concentration on the finish. Demands food. (RH)

One barrel of Syrah which stood out of the vintage. Barrel-fermented. Four year old vines – opposite to the philosophy of the rest of the range, which is based on old vines. Gorgeous oak and beautiful fruit – so finely hewn! Stony character and a baked earth note too – really expressive and supple. Seemingly weightless too – that’s a real feature of the domain. (RH)


Jane Macquitty
Top 50 summer reds The Times 6th July 2013

Jane’s favourite
2011 Fitou by Mademoiselle Jones, Languedoc, France
Majestic, £14.99 or two for £11.99 each until July 18 
Katie Jones worked for 17 years at the Tuchan co-operative, so if any Englishwoman knows what’s what at this western end of the Languedoc, she does. She owns seven hectares of up to a century-old carignan and grenache, plus 20-year-old syrah. Blend together, give it a dusting of French oak and you get a dazzling fat, tangy, violets and herb scrub-scented red, with a bitter chocolate finish. Magnificent.


Suzy Atkins 
The Telegraph 7th July 2013
Ever fancied starting up your own winery in the South of France? You'll almost certainly need to be a millionaire or a highly experienced winemaker. In 2007 Katie Jones was neither. She was, though, a Francophile who'd marketed wine in the craggy, remote region of Fitou for nearly 20 years. Vineyards are relatively cheap there, in the Pyrenean foothills, one hour from the coast and Spanish border. Jones jacked in her job, sold her car, and now owns several small plots of vines that had almost been abandoned, considered by locals to be too much hard work for very low yields. She makes her wine from a small stone building in Tuchan, her early oenology lessons provided by David Morrison, the Australian wine consultant.
It's a dramatic landscape of gorge and cliff, a far remove from touristy, pretty Provence, but when Jones showed me round her vineyards last month they seemed idyllic; set among wind-bent pines, wild honeysuckle and figs, the Cathar castle of Quéribus perched above. But not everything is perfect. There's some local opposition to her project; in March vandals broke in, opened vats and drained away her unbottled 2012 white. And one autumn, wild boars munched up her entire crop of juicy sweet muscat grapes.
But Jones won a gold and the Fitou Trophy at London's International Wine Challenge last year, and her full-bodied, richly perfumed reds are causing a stir in Britain, brought in by Fareham Cellars, The Wine Society, Majestic and Naked Wines already. Not bad, to date, what Katie did.


Fitou 2011 Mlle Jones, France (Majestic, £14.99, or £11.99 for two or more until 18 July)
Special blend for Majestic with 40 per cent syrah, 30 per cent grenache, 30 per cent carignan. Intense, highly fruited with blueberry, cassis and a sheen of oak. Drink with peppered steak.
Domaine Jones Fitou 2011 France (The Wine Society, £14.95)
More carignan in this, the usual Jones blend, giving a cherry tang and spice to a full-bodied red with a herby garrigue hint. Decant well. Serve with lamb or duck.
Domaine Jones Blanc 2011 Côtes Catalanes, France (Fareham Wine Cellar, £13.15)
Made from fashionable grenache gris, this is full but dry with tinned peach, melon and angelica flavours, and a touch of clove. Delicious lightly chilled with cold chicken or fresh salmon.




Domaine Jones Fitou 2011
A Roussillon superstar. Multi award-winning Fitou from old vines and in Katie's modern, elegant winemaking style. Christmas food match: roast boar with pommes dauphinoise and glazed root vegetable. - Jenny Mackenzie

Domaine Jones, Fitou, 2011. Katie Jones is one of the nicest and most innovative winemakers in the Languedoc-Roussillon area. Multi-award winning, fresh, modern white and red wines with cute labels are her hallmarks. http://earlybirdwinenews.blogspot.fr


Domaine Jones blanc Grenache Gris
So savoury - almost salty - which I adore, especially when you're looking for a food wine. Intense but not forced, with generous vivacity. And since you mention Xmas - would see you through from smoked salmon, to turkey, to stuffing sandwiches. - Sarah Abbott MW

By Rosemary George 2011 Domaine Jones Blanc 
Grenache Gris.  Medium colour. Ripe and textured  on both nose and palate, with lots of nuances.  Some lovely southern fruit,  with a touch of spice.  http://tastelanguedoc.blogspot.fr


DECANTER
Domaine Jones Grenache Gris 2011
Attractive flinty, lychee and citrus fruits.  Dense on the palate, with stone fruit flavors, pleasing hints of sweetness and a lovely structure.  Very bright attack.

By Mike Tipping 'Wines that really stand out'  Tippings Tipples - The Press

A couple of years back I wrote about wine sales and marketer turned winemaker Katie Jones, who bought a small vineyard near her home in the south of France. Since then, Katie’s wines have received much acclaim and, most recently, gold in the International Wine Challenge for her Domaine Jones Fitou 2010. Katie’s Fitou is indeed a solid, very well made red but Domaine Jones Blanc 2011 is the standout wine for me. Made from grenache gris, it has a creamy texture, with very long flavours of pear, melon, white pepper and herbs. It is dry but not overly so and has quite a pronounced minerality with smoky notes too.
By Jamie Goode 'A lovely Grenache Gris from Domaine Jones' A while back I was enthusing here about Grenache Blanc, and several people told me to keep an eye out for Grenache Gris. Well, I found one – it’s from Domaine Jones, whose winesreviewed a while back. The packaging is very stylish and so is the wine. Presumably Grenache Blanc, Gris and Noir are the same variety, as with Pinot, just different clones (although we like to think of them as separate varieties).13% alcohol. From an 80 year old Grenache Gris vineyard under the Queribus castle. Lovely hint of matchstick reduction on the nose. It shows broad, rounded, ripe pear fruit with just a hint of vanilla. Nice texture and depth with mineral freshness. 91/100

By Christine Austin Yorkshire Post 
Domaine Attraction
Domaine Jones Blanc 2011 Made from Grenache Gris from that original windswept, 80 year old vineyard, this has notes of melon and pear as well as a sense of the wild herbs which fill the air as you walk across the land.  There is a broad, textured palate, perfect to pour alongside food such as oven-baked fish or a herb roasted chicken.  This wine won a Silver Medal at the Decanter Awards.
Domaine Jones Rouge 2010 Again, made from those old vines in Maury, mainly Grenache with just a splash of Carignan this has just a touch of oak, but the dark, damson fruit shines out, still fresh and appealing with silky tannins and a lightness which makes it very food friendly, especially if there is red meat or a game pie on your plate.
Jones FItou 2010 With that half hectare of 100 year old vines as the core, bolstered by grapes from other wineyards in Tuchan, this wine shows just how good a simple appellation such as Fitou can be.   With real concentration, bright berry fruit with streaks of herbs and supple tannins this is a serious wine to be enjoyed now, or in the next five years.

By Jamie Goode 'Impressive wines from Katie Jones' new project in the south of France'
Domaine Jones Muscat Sec 2010 
Just 400 bottles made; this is a bit of a one off. In previous vintages Katie has made a sweet Muscat, but this is dry. Nicely aromatic and fresh with some grapey notes and hints of spice on the nose. The palate is dry and spicy but with nice full texture and sweet grapey fruit. 88/100
Domaine Jones Blanc 2009 
Half oak aged, this is predominantly Grenache Gris, with 5% Muscat. Intense and richly fruited nose with notes of melon and pear, as well as herb and spice notes. The palate is textured and broad with rich melon and herb fruit and a bit of bite. Lovely wine. 90/100
Domaine Jones Rouge 2009 
14.5% alcohol. Grenache and a bit of Carignan, half oak aged. Sweet, bright red berry fruit nose is aromatic and fresh. The palate is fruity with a bit of grip. Deliciously lively and open, showing sweet red fruits and great definition. 90/100
Domaine Jones Fitou 2010
 Aged in oak; just 4 barrels made. This comes from a single vineyard with 100 year old vines. Nicely complex nose of sweet berry fruits and notes of herb and spice, with a savoury, mineral edge. The palate is fresh and elegant with nice bright fruit and lovely tannic structure. Complex, promising and structured, this wine shows no hints of over-ripeness at all. 93/100

By Tim Atkin
2009 Domaine Jones Blanc, Vin de France
Katie still lives in Paziols, where I once had my house, but her grapes come from Maury in the Roussillon. This deftly-oaked Grenache Blanc contains a touch of Muscat, and it’s utterly delicious. Stylish, aromatic and refreshing, with hint of orange zest, citrus fruit lift and haunting minerality.
93 points. No UK importer, but available direct from the Domaine Jones website.

By Anthony Rose in the Independent
The results are a 2009 Domaine Jones Blanc, a full-bodied, richly textured dry white with ripe, stonefruit flavours and a stony, mineral core; and a 2009 Jones Muscat, in half-litre bottle, a correspondingly fragrant, medium sweet white with lusciously exotic, lychee and grapey flavours.

By Anthony Rose 'The Angel in Miss Jones'
The 2009 Domaine Jones Blanc, made from hand picked grenache gris grapes with a touch of aromatic muscat, is a full-bodied, richly textured dry white with ripe, stonefruit flavours, a stony, mineral core balanced by fine, refreshing acidity. You wouldn't know it had spent some time in oak, but it did spend about six months in three older oak casks to help round it out. 
The 2009 Jones Rouge is a full-bodied, grenache-based red, whose mulberry and red fruits flavours are delightfully pure and fresh thanks to mimimal use of oak, savoury, damsony acidity, silky textured tannins and a lightness of touch that makes this red moreishly drinkable and so different from the overtly oaky, sweet and New World styles so prevalent in this area.
The 2009 Jones Muscat, in half-litre bottle, is made with pure muscat a petit grains to create a wonderfull fragrant, medium sweet white whose exotically grapey flavours are juicy and fresh; like drinking a sweet liquid bunch of fresh muscat grapes.

By Tamlyn Currin on Purple Pages
Dom Jones blanc 2009 Vin de France 17.5++ Drink 2011-2014
Very fragrant, delicate mimosa and soft wild broom blossom. Jewelled acidity and exquisitely cut-glass fruit, glowing with life. Delicious weight of pear and melon, richness without a trace of heaviness, spice and wild herbs finely etched into the framework. Tense, tightly knit and very expressive. Long, long, long. Watch this domaine! (TC) 13.3%
Dom Jones Muscat 2009 Vin de France 16.5 Drink 2010-2011 Floral, honeysuckle nose, Turkish Delight. So, so pretty in the mouth - this one dances on tiptoes. Roses and fine boned and really quite racy. Not a wine for food, it's just too delicate. Perhaps for a summer evening with a bowl of Lucques olives... 13% 

By Leon Stolarski 
Jones Rouge 2009 Vin de France
100% old-vine Grenache. This has a nice light colour and another really expressive nose of fresh fruits, garrigue herbs and spice, with a hint of cigar box. The palate is a riot of bramble, raspberry and redcurrant, but with plenty of garrigue herb and spice flavours - there's a lot going on in this wine. The tannins are fine and the acidity is ample, making for a quite rich, but very elegant - even feminine - wine.
Jones Blanc 2009 Vin de France Grenache Gris, with a splash of Muscat a Petit Grains. Grenache Gris isn't usually the most expressive or aromatic variety, but the addition of that small amount of Muscat has imbued this wine with a lovely perfume of honey, apricot and flowers. The palate is gloriously fruity, with a certain richness and gentle spiciness, but beautifully balanced and elegant with it. Long, too. A lovely wine.
Jones Muscat 2009 Vin de France I was so busy chatting away to Katie and enjoying this wine that I completely forgot to write any sort of note. But I do remember that it was deliciously aromatic, grapey and apricotty, in the way that only a Muscat can be. It is an unusual wine, in that it is neither bone dry nor fortified (the two styles most often encountered in Languedoc and Roussillon). Instead, it falls somewhere between off-dry and sweet, making for a deliciously drinkable wine, with residual sweetness balanced by plenty of orange-tinged acidity. Yum!

By Rosemary George MW
2009 Grenache Gris. Vin de France - £15.00
Katie is not going to fuss about French bureaucracy and submit bottles and paperwork for a vin de pays label, or indication géographique protégée, as it should be called now.. She has opted for simplicity and vin de table. Half of her Grenache has spent six months in oak, but it is so beautifully integrated that you simply wouldn’t realise. There is some attractive spicy fruit on the nose and palate, with hints of white flowers and a fresh finish and lovely mouth feel. I was dead impressed. Here is somebody who until last year had never actually made wine – true she has worked in wine for years, but that’s quite different from making it. She does have access to some expert advice, but she has still got to implement it.
2009 Muscat - £10.00 for 37.5 cl. bottle Instead of the traditional, and sometimes rather heavy, Vin Doux Naturel, Katie has aimed for something lighter and more delicate. This has 13º alcohol with 60 gms/l of residual sugar. The nose has the characteristic grapey notes of Muscat, with a slightly bitter hint, and the palate is lovely and ripe, quite sweet, moelleux, and elegant rather than luscious. In France, where they favour sweeter aperitifs, you might drink this before a meal. I would like it with a light fruity dessert, or quite simply instead of dessert.

In Harpers Wine and Spirit
Domaine Jones Rouge 2009 Vin de France
With an aromatic, wild flower and red berry perfumed nose coupled with a light summer fruit taste, this red has good structure and concentration.

By Mike Tipping
Top marks also go to Domaine Jones Muscat 2009, a sweet treat made from Muscat Petit Grain, widely considered the best of the Muscat varietites. It is very fragrant with floral lime aromas and rich flavours of grape, grapefruit and elderflower, tropical fruit and hony. It’s quite light for a ‘sticky’ and would work as well as an aperitif as it would as an accompaniment to dessert.
The delightfully different Jones blanc 2009 is made from Greanche Gris, blended with a smidgen of Muscat. It is bone dry, with flavours if citrus and tropical fruit, honey, plenty of minerality and a linering white pepper finish.

By Clive PatmanBin Ends Wine Club
Jones white 2009 99% Grenache gris 1% Muscat. A medium to full bodied wine, with round complex structure. There were minerals, herbs, passion fruit, pear, melon and white flowers. Soft, silky, supple and spicy. Very sublte oak and very expressive. (CHP 18)
Jones red 2009 100% grenache noir, aged 1 year in 400 litre barrels. Full bodied with animal notes, red fruits and black cherry flavours. Spicy with a lovely soft texture. It’s silky smooth, with a delicate charm, showin real depth and dimension. Still fresh in spite of its weight, with an impressive length and finish. Superb! (CHP 18) 
Late harvested Muscat with a potential of 18 alcohol with arrested fermentation at 13. Medium sweet style, fresh, floral and perfumed. Delicate and not overpowering (…). Delicious with white or blue cheeses. (CHP 17) 

By Richard James
Jones Blanc 2009 Aromatic floral nose with light coconut cedar and toasted honey tones; exotic peachy touches on the palate vs chalky texture, nice balance of fruit vs lees/toast versus steelier side, quite elegant actually and drinking well already.
Jones red 2009 Enticing sweet cherry, liquorice and herbal fruit; nice dry versus smooth mouth feel with peppery and punchy finish 
Jones Muscat 2009 Voluptous honeyed grapey nose with a touch o citrus marmalade; rich vs frereshing palate actuall showing lovely cut and balance, lush and honeyed vs mineral and quite fine.