Harvest 2017 in the vat

As we put the lid on the vat of the ninth Jones harvest I am happy to say that is has probably been one of the finest quality, one of the earliest and definitely one of the hairiest harvests since we started in 2009.

You may remember my small plot of hairy grenache (Lledoner Pelut) which I am rather fond of – not just because of the name which sounds vaguely welsh but because I have always thought that this vineyard has great potential to make a fine wine.  And great potential to use a couple of wigs!

There isn’t much going for the hairy grenache (so called because it has fine hairs on the back of the leaves).  It is despised locally for the inferior quality of the wine, its lower alcohol and has even been downgraded to ‘generic’ status at the local cooperative.  I’m always up for a challenge  and in the 2017 vintage I set out to show that Lledoner Pelut  can make a seriously fine wine.

I only have a small vineyard of 60 year old Lledoner with about 2000 vines.  My first attempt back in the 2015 harvest went a bit bottoms up and I ended up blending it back in to my Fitou.  It was a lovely, perfumed wine but with a lighter aromatic body which made the tannins unbalanced.  So this year I decided to do things differently.  Instead of treating it like the other Mediterranean varieties we decided to treat it like a lighter variety the pinot noir.  Instead of trying to get maximum extract out of the skins we pressed after only 4 days to prioritise the fresh fruit flavours and subtle tannins.  It’s looking very good so far. So much so that I’m even a little upset that I only have the potential to make 900 bottles.

On the subject of small volumes I’m rather disappointed by the meagre harvest of my Carignan Gris.  It’s never been one of my biggest producers - in 2016 I managed to squeeze 600 bottles from my  60 year old vines but unfortunately no matter how much I pressed this year it is going to be a very very small production.  I thought all of my vines had escaped the late April frosts we had this year but this low lying vineyard must have had just a touch of frost - enough to prevent all the grapes developing properly. 

But I’m really pleased to say that  all the other grape varieties Carignan, Grenache and Syrah on the red side and Grenache Gris, Grenache blanc, Macabeu and Muscat on the white side performed well this year and my old vines have done my proud once again.  The 2017 will be one to look out for.

Highlights of the harvest included a cassoulet made by a Dutch chef and served in our vineyard , trips in my old faithful Dyane who was driven in to a ditch by a German, washing 100 picking baskets in the sunshine and watching others wash over 1000,  discovering that gin and fermenting grape juice is a great drink and having an amazing team once again to safely ensure the grapes are picked, put into vat  and looked after with the total and utmost respect they deserve.

Thanks very much Steve and Pauline, Cara and the pickers, all of you who made it to Tuchan to see us and of course Monsieur Jones for making this one of the most enjoyable harvests yet.

 A très bientôt
Katie

Tuchan - the end of the line!

  

In 1897 the wine production of Tuchan and the surrounding area was estimated rather generously at 75000 hl  – the equivalent of 10 million bottles.  This justified adding a line from Ferrals in the Corbières to Tuchan linking them up to Lezignan and on to the Midi network to Bordeaux (which is probably where most of the wine was heading !)

It wasn’t full steam ahead though as each village wanted to be included and in 1900, the planned route was extended by 5 km.  People in Tuchan were up in arms as it made their journey more expensive so in August 1900 it was agreed that the extension would go ahead but that the ticket price for people from Tuchan and the surrounding Hautes Corbières would be reduced to compensate for the additional 5km.  

But the immediate problem in Tuchan was to decide which way the line would go after Tuchan.  Towards Paziols and the Pyrénées Orientales or towards Padern further inland and on to the deepest corners of la France Profonde.

After much heated debate and wasted energy (as is still so much the case down here) the tracks never made it further than Tuchan.  The train line was to be extended using the profits from the first section – profits that unfortunately never materialised.

After all (or most) of the village politics had been settled, the station finally opened in Tuchan in 1905 !

You can still see the small ticket office and platform in the village and the wild boar hunters have converted the depot into their hunting lodge.  The tracks are long gone and found a new home in Yugoslavia along with the trains.