Parker pointing in the right direction!

The results of Parker’s tasting of over 1,000 wines from Languedoc-Roussillon are out and I am over the moon! A really big thank you to Jeb Dunnock!

Robert Parker review of Domaine Jones range

Source: eRobertParker.com #224 

Reviewer: Jeb Dunnock, Published Apr 2016 

Article: France, Languedoc: New Releases from France's Best Kept Secret / Roussillon 2013’s and ‘14’s

2013 Domaine Jones La Perle Rare Syrah                                               93 points

Vin de France, Languedoc Roussillon, France

Possibly the greatest wine I’ve tasted from Katie, the 2013 Vin de France La Perle Rare Syrah is made from old vine Syrah and brought up in barrel. Full-bodied, rich, concentrated and structured, it has plenty of oak in its crème de cassis, jammy blackberry, toasted bread, and bloody meat-like aromas and flavors. I love the fruit here, and it will be better with 2-3 years of cellaring and keep through 2025.

2014 Domaine Jones Les Perles Syrah Vieilles Vignes                          92 points

Vin de France, Languedoc Roussillon, France

The 2014 Syrah Vieilles Vignes (100% Syrah) reveals a healthy ruby/purple color as well as tons of minerality, dark fruit, medium to full-bodied richness and fine tannin. It shows more and more structure with time in the glass and is a serious Syrah that will keep for a decade.

2014 Domaine Jones La Perle Rare Grenache Gris                               91 points

Vin de France, Languedoc Roussillon, France

My favorite of the whites is the 2014 La Perle Rare Grenache Gris and this medium gold-colored beauty offers fabulous white currants, white flowers, apple blossom and hints of brioche in its medium-bodied, pure, classy personality. It will be versatile on the dinner table and drink nicely for 2-3 years, possibly longer.

2014 Domaine Jones Les Perles Macabeu Vieilles Vignes                    90 points

Vin de France, Languedoc Roussillon, France

More exotic than the Carignan Gris, with lots of lime, crisp peach, mint and that ever-present kiss of minerality, the 2014 Macabeu Vieilles Vignes is medium-bodied, refreshing and downright impossible to resist. It’s perfect to start a meal with over the coming year.

2014 Domaine Jones Fitou                                                                    89 points

Fitou, Languedoc Roussillon, France

Domaine Jones 2014 Fitou is a beautiful, ripe, textured, medium-bodied blend of 40% Carignan, 30% Syrah and 30% Grenache that comes from a selection of 20 different vineyards in the tiny appellation of Fitou. Blackberries, crushed flowers and light minerality all emerge from this well made 2014 that will offer tons of pleasure over the coming 5-6 years.

2014 Domaine Jones Fitou La Gare                                                    89 points

Fitou, Languedoc Roussillon, France

In the same qualitative ballpark as the straight Fitou, the 2014 Fitou La Gare offers lots of plums, violets, white pepper and earth in a medium-bodied, fresh, lively, deliciously forward style. Made from 35% Carignan, 30% Syrah and 30% Grenache, it’s a no brainer to enjoy over the coming 5-6 years.

2013 Domaine Jones Les Perles Carignan Vieilles Vignes                89 points

Languedoc Roussillon, France

The vibrant, juicy, berry and plum-scented 2013 Carignan Vieilles Vignes is medium-bodied, clean, fresh and certainly well made. It has plenty of Carignan character and will drink nicely for 3-5 years.

2014 Domaine Jones Carignan Gris Vieilles Vignes                        89 points

Languedoc Roussillon, France

Jones’ 2014 Carignan Gris Vieilles Vignes is a classy, medium-bodied and elegant white that offers textbook notes of citrus blossom, spice, honeysuckle and a touch of minerality. It drops off on the finish, but is still a beautiful drink.

2014 Domaine Jones Côtes Catalanes Grenache Gris                    89 points

IGP Cotes Catalanes, Languedoc Roussillon, France

The 2014 IGP Cotes Catalanes Grenache Gris is a rock solid white that offers beautiful minerality, citrus peel and white flower characteristics in a medium-bodied, racy style. Finishing clean and dry, it’s a perfect food wine and will drink nicely for at least 2-3 years.
 

2014 Domaine. Jones IGP Cotes Catalanes Grenache                  87 points

IGP Cotes Catalanes, Languedoc Roussillon, France

The 2014 IGP Cotes Catalanes Grenache from Domaine Jones is a juicy, forward, easy-drinking effort that has lots of pretty berry and strawberry fruits, medium-bodied richness, and a peppery, clean, classy finish. It’s a good value and ideal for drinking over the coming 3-4 years.

Located in Fitou, Domaine Jones makes a bevy of impeccably made, charming, balanced wines that are more than reasonably priced.

For the full article on the Languedoc-Roussillon, please visit http://www.erobertparker.com/

Parker points 2014

It's out!  And so with no further ado…… (these are my wines from the vineyard in Maury in the Roussillon and tasting notes on my Fitou should be out next month)

DOMAINE JONES ROUGE 2010                   92 POINTS

Parker 2014

Raised in used demi-muids and tank, and incorporating with its Grenache around 10% Carignan (subjected to separate bottling the vintages before) Jones’s 2010 Jones Rouge is scented with fresh, ultra-ripe red raspberry and strawberry accompanied by intimations of iodine, rosemary oil, smoky black tea, crushed stone and piquant crushed fruit pit, all of which figure on a palate lusciously juicy and expansive, intensely-fruited yet incorporating invigorating ping of crunched berry seeds; medicinal herbal-mineral piquancy; and a saliva-liberating lick of salt. The finish here is as penetratingly persistent as it is infectiously mouthwatering. As usual, this bottling offers no just a terrific introduction to the wiles of pure-fruited Maury Grenache, but one full of genuine intrigue and issuing an irresistible invitation to have the next glass without weighing-down your palate or dulling your imagination! It’s sure to continue drinking well through at least 2015; and as a longer track record accumulates we’ll discover whether that prognosis is conservative. And based on ex-cellars pricing (I have not been able to track-down U.S. retail) this is also one amazing value.

DOMAINE JONES ROUGE 2011                   90 POINTS

Parker 2014

The 2011 Jones rouge – whose constituents and elevage are very like those of its 2010 predecessor reviewed here as well – is less richly concentrated or mineral than that wine, but exhibits its own virtues. Fresh, ripe strawberry and red raspberry come off with shrub-like effusiveness and juiciness but free of any superficial sweetness, while a saline streak enhances mouthwatering appeal and skins and seeds of berry serve for invigoratingly tart tang. Generous and open, this finishes with exuberance, impressive persistence, as well as downright refreshment relatively rare among Roussillon reds. My suspicion is that it will be best enjoyed by 2015.

DOMAINE JONES ROUGE 2012

Parker 2014

Jones was waiting for her 2012 Grenache to complete malo when I visited this past spring, so I cannot report on what will eventually become Jones Rouge from that vintage other than to say that it is going to texturally polished and full of pure fruit but also complexity.

DOMAINE JONES BLANC 2011                  90 POINTS

Parker 2014

From the same stand of Grenache Gris that informed its 2009 and 2010 predecessors, (minus its mingling of Muscat vines, whose fruit is now subject to separate bottling), the 2011 Jones Blanc certainly suffers no dilution from the effects of what by this vintner’s standards represents an inexplicably generous 25 hectoliters per hectare. (Her old black vines had essentially their usual low yields in this vintage; only Jones’s Grenache Gris seems capricious.) Luscious lime, pineapple, and grapefruit are shot-through with saline, stony and somehow crystalline mineral impingements for a positively shimmering impression. Lentil sprout-like vegetal and nutty piquancy as well as a hint of iodine serve for further counterpoint and intrigue en route to a mouthwateringly lingering finish. I suspect that this will drink beautifully through 2015, and quite possibly beyond. Based on its ex-cellars price, it will have proven an exceptional value, and it’s regrettable that none of it seems to have made it to the U.S.

DOMAINE JONES BLANC 2012                  (89-90 POINTS)

Parker 2014

The 2012 Jones Blanc is sadly more than merely reduced in volume from previous years. In fact, it represents the mere remnant left in an outdoor tank that was drained in an act of vandalism. And since Jones needs some wine with which to top-off her ongoing experiment in long barrel-elevage (whose rather overtly woody 2009 instantiation I refrain from detailing, as it had just been bottled when I tasted it this spring), the present 2012 was being held in a tiny tank for that purpose, and at most a miniscule amount will end-up being bottled on its own. Since Jones only discovered her victimization after several days’ absence at a trade fair, she was suspicious that this remnant might have been compromised by oxidation or bacteriological infestation; but in a demonstration of its resilience, this Grenache Gris is on a qualitative level comparable with its predecessors. Luscious pineapple, lime, and grapefruit inform a florally accented nose and plush, expansive palate. This might lack quite the salinity or focus of the 2010, but it’s still invigorating in its lime rind and pineapple core impingement; and piquant nuttiness offers counterpoint in a long, refreshing finish.

DOMAINE JONES SWEET MUSCAT 2012                  91 POINTS

Parker 2014

The late-picked, stopped-fermentation 2012 Jones Muscat represents a lighter (at 11.5% alcohol) and correspondingly sweeter variation on her delightfully distinctive 2009 rendition from a small number of petits grains vines inter-planted with Jones’s Grenache Gris. Orange and lime rinds infused in syrup; laced with honeydew melon liqueur; and garlanded with orange blossom, honeysuckle and mint, make for a seductively-scented and lusciously, insistently lingering finish. Too bad that there were only 26 6-packs of half bottles produced – half the volume of the 2009 – but this elixir represents a dramatic demonstration of Muscat’s potential in Southern France if subjected to an alternative approach in both the vineyard and cellar. And given how superficially sweet and ultimately uninteresting are the vast majority of Muscats Rivesaltes, it’s hard not to imagine that many of Roussillon’s and the Languedoc’s ancient vines – not to mention we wine lovers – would benefit from such a change of approach, albeit at the price of relinquishing any specific appellation.

Katie Jones – for more about whose estate and approach consult my report in issue 195 – has happily augmented her acreage since I last reported (including in appellation Fitou, whose latest exciting exemplars chez Jones I’ll review in my separate report on wines of the Languedoc). Especially felicitous in view of the quality of her Grenache Gris-based white is that she has managed to secure five more acres of that relatively rare cepage, inter-planted with Carignan Gris and Blanc in Paziol. So future whites here will straddle the line between Roussillon (where, north of Maury, a substantial share of Domaine Jones’s vines still reside) and the Languedoc. To accommodate these new sources of juice, Jones has acquired and will soon occupy the long, thickly stone-walled, abandoned stone engine house of the former Tuchan railway terminus, an imposing edifice that should be ideally suited for vinification and cellaring purposes. (Such idle engine houses dot Roussillon and the Languedoc, so ambitious young growers should check-out their options.) Sadly and shockingly, Jones’ 2012 white – which had been parked in tank behind a fence just outside of her cramped existing winery – got emptied in an act of sabotage, so that the wine on which I report represents only the small volume left in the bottom. Jones was waiting for her 2012 Grenache to complete malo when I visited this past spring, so I cannot report on what will eventually become Jones Rouge from that vintage other than to say that it is going to texturally polished and full of pure fruit but also complexity.

David Schildknecht

January 2014

Parker points for Domaine Jones

On a very normal day back in April a very unusual event took place.  David Schildknecht, the taster for Languedoc Roussillon for Robert Parker asked if he could come to visit Domaine Jones.  Now for those of you not in the know, Robert Parker's reviews in The Wine Advocate and his point system out of 100 are one of the most influential in the US and probably in the world.  So feeling very humble and not quite able to believe it, I welcomed David (a great lover of Grenache Gris) to Domaine Jones.  The tasting results came out in June and the complete review can be found on www.erobertparker.com but here are the comments on Jones - I hope you are sitting comfortably.....

Jones Rouge 2009            90 points

Jones Blanc 2010            91 points

Jones Blanc 2009            90 points

Domaine Jones Fitou 2010            (91-92)

Katie Jones purchased her vines on the the northern edge of the commune of Maury in 2009, commencing life as a vigneronne after having for numerous years worked as the commercial face of one of the Fitou appellation’s two large coops. (See my accompanying report on wines of the Languedoc for an account of Jones’s inaugural 2010 vintage Fitou).  Jones bottles her Roussillon 2009 fruits simple as Vin de France and has thus far marketed them almost entirely directly to consumers in her native UK (who thereby enjoy some terrific bargains), although a few French restaurants have recently become wise to the quality on offer from this small, immaculate cellar in Tuchan.  Fortunately, Jones has indicated her openness to sell through the trade in other export markets.

Jones Rouge 2009            90 points

Raised in used demi-muids and tank, the 2009 Jones Rouge is a pure Grenache grown on Maury’s dark schist. Strikingly evocative of very ripe strawberries, it adds interest and invigoration by way of smoky black tea, crushed stone, and white pepper.  Despite its fullness, this delivers long lasting levity and refreshment with its luscious fruit; offering a polished, pure, infectious introduction to the Grenache Noir grape much as the corresponding Jones Blanc epitomizes the far less well-known Grenache Gris.  Start drinking this and I guarantee you will have to restrain yourself to not drain the bottle.  (The 2010 was not yet assembled when I visited here to taste, but is individual lots promise a wine of at least equal quality.)

Jones Blanc 2010            91 points

From virtually pure Grenache Gris (certainly there are a few black and white vines in there) – since the cohabitating Muscat was entirely marked and segregated this year for a separate bottling – the 2010 Jones Blanc offers a knockout compendium of the seductive wiles of this cepage so seldom encountered outside of Roussillon.  Scents of narcissus, acacia, and ripe Persian melon translate into a luscious, soothingly- textured, yet refreshing palate on which fresh cress and myriad mineral nuances of seemingly crystalline nature offer a positively shimmering flavor interplay and tactile impingement.  Mouth-watering salinity; pungent smokiness; piquant citrus zest; and a bite of cress accompany the generous fruit on a long finish.  It would be a shame to miss out on some of this over the next couple of years, but that said it may well be worth following it for longer.

Jones Blanc 2009            90 points

From a 70 year old stand of mostly Grenache Gris that includes 500 Muscat vines, the 2009 Jones Blanc delivers musky floral perfume; piquant citrus oils, pungent mint and cress; along with very ripe Persian melon in an attention getting aromatic display and luscious, silken textured palate performance.  The herbal and citrus notes here seem to be heightened by – though certainly not solely attributable to- the Muscat; and no doubt some of the richness of texture here is attributable to Jones having regularly stirred the lees.  At only 13% alcohol, this manages to convey a welcome sense of levity for its vintage, not to mention for fruit from Maury; and while half of its volume was rendered in three new barriques (the rest raised in tank), there is only the merest hint of distinct woodiness, and then only as the wine warms up.

Domaine Jones Fitou 2010            (91-92)

Katie Jones – for more about whom, and about the majority of whose wines, see my accompanying Roussillon report – last year acquired an 80 year old block of Grenache and Carignan outside Paziols as well as a bit of Syrah that together filled three used barriques, from which I tasted the Domaine Jones 2010 Fitou.  Bright black raspberry and bilberry are set off by an underlying sense of crushed stone and accented by evocations of rosemary and thyme, juniper, lavender, and peat.  Silken in texture and palate caressing, this beauty at the same time finishes with a lilt, verve, interactive dynamic, and sheer refreshment that you will I believe otherwise search in vain for from its appellation.  Even in lieu of a track record, I venture to predict that this will be well worth following for at least the better part of a decade.