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| 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.
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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.
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