Harvest 2023 in photos

 

Sunrise over the Chateau d'Aguilar as Michel prepares the crates for the pickers

A lovely bunch of grenache gris from La Grande Pièce

Picking the Muscat in the fresh of the early morning

Our ever faithful spanish pickers helping with the grenache gris 

Coplanted grenache blanc and grenache gris for Katie Jones blanc

Whole bunches of Grenache blanc going into the press at La Gare winery

Will making sure the quality is up to Domaine Jones standard

Filling up the oak barrels with macabeu from the Colombier vineyard

Time to press the syrah from La Caune vineyard

Getting the carignan safely into the press

Lees from La Caune vineyard

Harvest hands

Merci beaucoup everyone! 

VINEYARD RAMBLINGS - Macabeu

Vineyard Le Colombier

Vine Macabeu

Date Planted 1971

Soils Clay, limestone, marne

Oh là là view Chateau d'Aguilar

In Tuchan most of the macabeu vineyards were planted between 1968 and 1979 and it was particularly popular in the neighbouring village of Paziols.

Growers loved it for its high yields, big 'feel good' bunches and made a sweet fortified white Rivesaltes.  As it is a naturally high yielding grape and produces tight bunches it can easily rot and so is best off on poor soils with no irrigation to reduce yields.

There are quite a few different ways of spelling, and probably pronouncing macabeu, such as maccabeu, macabeo, maccabeo, maccabeou, makkobeo and it is also known as viura in Spain where it originates from and now is mainly used for the production of cava.

My macabeu vines in Le Colombier produce a very small amount of grapes and make around 3000 bottles per hectare (25hl/ha) and it is, to my knowledge, one of the last remaining macabeu vineyards in Tuchan.  Traditionally the grapes would have been taken to the Cooperative in Tuchan to make a sweet wine but when I took the vine over I decided to make a dry wine.

And I'm so glad I did.  Macabeu has a bit of a bad reputation for making bland, blousy wines lacking in acidity but thanks to the low yields on my old vines the Jones Macabeu is surprisingly fresh and bright in its youth and takes on a honey, nutty richness as it ages.

It is good with mango, avocado and salmon, fish pie, seafood pasta, scampi, and baked camembert.

Macabeu

The beauty of this time of year is getting to enjoy stunning blue skies, radiant sunshine but no crushing heat. What better therefore than a wine which beautifully illustrates the bridging between seasons. Our wonderfully crisp and zesty Vineyard Collection Macabeu is ideal either to be sipped in the warm sun with an aperitif of prawns, salmon blinis with a dill spread and some garlic and herb-infused olives, or to accompany a warming October dish of fish pie, honey-roasted gammon joint, a platter of fresh seafood or this succulent lime and fennel salmon, recipe below !  

Macabeu is a superbe grape variety which once helped make this region world-reknown. But how about we let Simone, one of our very own old Macabeu vines tell you herself: 

I have been bred to make enormous amounts of grapes. My big, golden bunches were the pride of the area in the seventies when a fortified, sweet wine called Rivesaltes was so 'à la mode' that my owners were known as ‘americains’. But as Rivesaltes fell from its podium, so did I. Most of my macabeu friends are long gone, ripped up and replaced by younger, more profitable vines. You can imagine how grateful I am to Katie for saving me and my friends in this tiny vineyard called Le Colombier. So many people tried to warn Katie not to take us on, that we weren’t capable of producing low yields and serious wines. I’m so glad she didn’t listen to them! You can be sure that we are listening to her every instruction – low yields, small bunches, low yields, small bunches …. I think we’re doing OK! Susy Atkins thinks so too because she said that she was in love with our wine! And then she went on and on making all Katie’s hard work so worthwhile:
‘It’s one of those wines that you can go back to again and again and you will get more and more out of it. Pears with a slight tang of lime, orchard fruit – apple and pears, melon and a bit of honey. Lovely texture and quite full with a succulent end. A great wine!’

Roasted salmon with fennel and lime

 

ROASTED SALMON WITH FENNEL AND LIME

INGREDIENTS

 4 servings

• 2limes
• 1teaspoon fennel seeds, lightly crushed using a mortar and pestle or the flat side of a knife
•  salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 4(6- to 8-ounce) skinless salmon fillets
• 1large fennel bulb with fronds
• Extra-virgin olive oil, for drizzling
• 6fresh marjoram or thyme sprigs
• Flaky sea salt, for serving

PREPARATION

1. Step 1

   Heat oven to 325 degrees. Finely grate the zest from 1 lime into a small bowl, and set aside the zested lime. Add fennel seeds, ½ teaspoon salt and ½ teaspoon pepper to the bowl and toss to combine. Sprinkle mixture all over salmon.

2. Step 2

   Meanwhile, remove the fennel fronds from the bulb and chop up enough to make 60g. Trim fennel bulb, discarding stalks, and slice bulb thinly using a mandoline or a sharp knife. Spread half the fennel slices in a baking dish in an even layer and drizzle with oil. Arrange salmon on top.

3. Step 3

   Slice the whole, unzested lime into thin rounds and lay the slices on top of the salmon. Tuck marjoram around the salmon and drizzle salmon generously with more olive oil.

4. Step 4

   Roast until salmon is just cooked through, 15 to 20 minutes. (Thinner fillets may take less time, so start checking for doneness at 10 minutes.)

5. Step 5

   Meanwhile, toss chopped fennel fronds and remaining fennel slices with a pinch of salt in a medium bowl. Juice the zested lime and add some of the juice to the fennel, to taste. Drizzle the sliced fennel with olive oil and set aside to serve with the salmon.

VINEYARD RAMBLINGS - St Roch

 

Heavenly St Roch

VINEYARD St Roch

VINE Carignan, Grenache, Syrah

DATE PLANTED  Carignan, Grenache 1905 / Syrah 1980

SOILS Limestone, scree and lots of stones

OH LÀ LÀ VIEW  Chateau D'Aguilar, Puy de la Gardie

St Roch was the first vineyard I purchased in Tuchan.  It was a small, unwanted plot of vines on the road out of Tuchan that takes you to the top of the Tauch mountain.  Nobody rushed to buy it as the vines were old, it's on a steep slope, the soils poor and it's a favourite with the wild boar.  So everything (apart from the latter) that I was looking for!!  And this very small vineyard allowed me to make my very first Fitou.  In 2010 I made just one hundred cases to see if an old vine Fitou could work.  And a couple of months later I got my answer - a gold medal at the International Wine Challenge!

Jean-Marc was relieved as old vines mean a lot of hard work.  The vineyard was in a pretty bad state when we bought it and needed major weeding (with the digger), replanting of missing vines and hedgerow management. The vineyard is on one of the best terroir at the base of the Tauch mountain and the soils are made up of limestone deposits eroded by wind and rain off the mountain. 

The vineyard is relatively sheltered from the strong tramontane wind but even so branches are regularly broken and grapes blown off coming up to harvest.  The vineyard is one of the last to be harvested in the village because of its altitude which makes it particularly attractive to wild boar.  An electric fence helps to make it a little less attractive!

The purchase of this vineyard was the beginning of Domaine Jones Fitou!  I then went on to purchase more small vineyards in and around the village of Tuchan to replicate the quality made from St Roch in 2010.

All the vines are gobelet vines except for the syrah which is trained on wires and pruned as cordon de royat. The vineyard is farmed organically with the help of mignon the chenillard tractor.  The grapes are hand harvested.

This year I will be doing a full circle and making a field blend Fitou just from the vines in St Roch. 

Spring

Spring

Harvest

Harvest

Autumn

Winter

Domaine Jones is made up of 15 small vineyards covering 12 hectares.  Each has a name or 'lieu-dit' which tends to be a name that has been used by the Tuchanais for generations.  Everyone in the village knows the 'lieu-dit' even though they might not be on any maps.

VINEYARD RAMBLINGS - AOC Fitou

The history of the Fitou appellation begins not with Fitou but with Corbières. There has always been a notable difference between the quality of the wine from low yielding vines in the hills (Hautes Corbières) and the wine from high yielding vines in the plains around Beziers and Narbonne and the producers of the Hautes Corbières have long been on a mission to achieve recognition for their wines.

Initially the word "Corbières" was used for the wines as it designated a specific geographical area but the area was recognised as a single wine producing area - Corbières Viticole. The negociants may have known of the superior quality coming from the inland area but the consumer didn't as they were all under the label Corbières. The vignerons definitely didn't see any financial reward as they were paid the same for their carignan and grenache at 13° as an aramon at 10° from Narbonne. 

In 1908, just after the Crise Viticole of 1907,  Corbières Viticole covered 18 villages and the Hautes Corbières were well represented with 11 villages in the canton of Tuchan - but by 1923 there were over 70 villages producing 808 000 hl mainly from the plain. This increase in production lowered the price. 

In 1936 AOC Rivesaltes and Côtes d'Agly were awarded for sweet fortified wines (Vin Doux Naturel) across the border in the Roussillon but nine villages of the Languedoc were able to reply to the AOC rules and were allowed to produce these appellations thus guaranteeing a higher price for their wines.  The villages were Tuchan, Paziols, Villeneuve, Cascastel in the highland area and La Palme, Leucate, Treilles, Caves and Fitou in the maritime area.

The growers of these 9 villages contested the Corbières Viticole 12 times form 1930 to 1951 but it was never changed mainly because of the importance and wealth of the larger growers on the plain.

But the mission continued to get an AOC for a dry red wine rather than the generic name of Corbières Viticole.  The village of Tuchan in the Hautes Corbières wanted an AOC called Côtes du Tauch named after the Tauch mountain that rises to 900 m behind the village but it was rejected by INAO as there was no documented history of wine making.  At the same time the maritime villages were trying to get an appellation called AOC Fitou and unlike their counter parts in the Hautes Corbières they found a reference to Louis X111 and Louis XIV trying the red wine of Fitou.

The second World War had a devastating effect on the vineyards especially in the maritime area of the proposed Fitou appellation. Vineyards were ripped up and planted with essential vegetables and the Germans occupied the villages of Leucate and Lapalme.

After the war, highland Côtes du Tauch joined with maritime Fitou and requested a single appellation - AOC Fitou. In 1947 a delegation came down from Paris and the INAO visited Villeneuve and Cascastel and had a party in Leucate before finally awarding the Fitou appellation in 1948.  The producers of Fitou were reassured by the appellation Fitou to differentiate it from the large Corbières area but it was going to take years before with wines were recognised by the consumer.

Harvest 2020

      

This week we pressed the last vat from the 2020 harvest.  It was vat number 14 from the Rebouls Carignan vineyard.  This was one of the last vineyards we picked so logical that it should be the last one to be pressed – but it was so far behind the others.  The fruit was perfect, the yields low so we left the wine to macerate on the skins for 5 weeks.  It marks the end of the 2020 harvest – the grand finale!

 
The harvest started on the 24^th of August at 7am with a team of five pickers, Michel on the tractor and Sébastien picking up the cases. This is the 12^th harvest at Domaine Jones and we have never started so early.  Climate change is starting not only to interrupt our summer holidays but also bringing with it new challenges for our vineyards. 
 
So what was different this year – well Covid put a spanner in the works as far as our Spanish pickers were concerned.  We normally have a team of hard picking, sun proof Valencians but this year for the first time we were without the Spanish.   I really shouldn’t have worried! Equipped with individual water bottles, hand sanitiser, face masks and separate vehicles the tuchanais (and one from Paziols) picked their way through my vineyards.  But not just picked, picked, smiled and laughed right up to the last bunch.

   

The whites came in first – grenache gris and grenache blanc followed by the macabeu from Colombiers, the muscat from Taissonieres way up in the garrigue, the extremely rare carignan gris from La Roque and finally the grenache gris from our new vineyard La Grande Pièce in the valley under the Chateau D’Aguilar.
 
The La Gare winery was full of excitement as we made two barrels of orange wine from the macabeu and for the first time ever we discovered the quality of the fruit from La Grande Pièce grenache gris. The vines are 70 years old but as the grapes have always been taken into the local Cooperative by the previous owner the wine has never been made separately before.
 
All I can say is the vines must be enjoying their retirement at Domaine Jones - the wine is absolutely beautiful, so perfumed and evocative you could almost be walking through the vineyard. 
 

 

 

The 8^th of September was the ‘top départ’ for the red grapes starting with the syrah from the Caune vineyard.  And with it came my first mistake of the harvest.  Last year we got 352 cases from the vineyard so as the grapes came in I started to fill V3 our largest vat.  This year we only got 195 cases 😬.  It wasn’t the fault of the wild boar, or mildew or Jean-Marc (!) – there were just some vines with no grapes.   It was my fault for assuming the yield would be the same and that is an elementary mistake by a would be farmer!
 
We finished the harvest on the 22^nd September with total volumes about 15% down but excellent quality grapes
 
All the vineyards that we visited since April in my vineyard rambles are now in their little vats – St Roch is in vat number 12, the syrah from La Caune is in vat number 5 the carignan gris from La Roque is in vat number 10.  It’s weird and wonderful at the same time that all those vineyards are now reduced to a couple of hundred litres. 
 
But it’s not just wine, I have tried to capture the terroir (tear–wah), the sense of place, the wild herbs 🌿, the wild flowers 🌸the tramontane 💨, the Tauch mountain, the soils, the people.  Only time will tell if I have succeeded! 
 
Talking of people I wasn’t alone in the winery - I had a happy 'cru'.  Steve came back after a year off to help me (more I helped Steve) and it was such a pleasure, and a relief, to have experienced, trustful hands to respect our year’s work in the vineyard.   Steffen and Sandy bought a new dimension to the winery – german organisation, great friendly vibes and the occasional yoga stretch and culinary delight!  Not to mention Tom who did a sterling jog washing over 1500 baskets.
 

     

We had a couple of visits during the harvest, Quentin, James and Claire and Julia, and we even shared breakfast on the rock with Justin from Domaine of the Bee. 
 
We had fun! We had fun in such an ‘année de merde’! We all loved the 2020 harvest, enjoyed working together and that will be reflected in the wines! It was a special one – a distraction in a difficult year, a covid harvest, a relief and a breath of fresh air.