Les Perles Carignan - Scotland on Sunday

' 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.' 

Thanks so much to Brian for this lovely write up on Les Perles Carignan from our 100 year old vines.

Scotland on Sunday, Brian Elliott - 18th September 2016 

Harvest 2014 - the reds

Syrah lees or the gunk at the bottom of the tank

Here at Domaine Jones our main red grapes are Carignan, Grenache and Syrah. These grapes will either go into our Fitou (a blend of all 3) or kept separate as single varietels.  As each of our 25 vineyards are fermented separately it means that not only do we have a lot of small vats and barrels but we keep our options wide open until we get to know each wine intimately and then blend or not in April 2015.

The Syrah usually comes in first, except for our high altitude vineyard, followed by the Carignan and Grenache.  This year was even more exciting than usual as we have invested in a vibrating sorting table!  We did think of a couple of uses for the table which had absolutely nothing to do with the harvest but its main purpose is to make sure make that all stalks and leaves are removed before putting the grapes into vat.  The top grapes for La Perle Rare are inspected by no less than 8 people on their bumpy journey down the table to the awaiting open barrel.

The top wines then received more VIP treatment barrel as the grapes were gently squeezed by 3 pairs of feet twice a day for 7 days.

Although it is still early days, as we have only just started to press the Syrah, (usually after about 20 days) the wine is already showing a great concentration, lovely fruit and a great balance.

For the wines that ferment in vat we do twice daily pump overs to extract colour and structure from the skins.

I'd also like to give a special mention for our awesome vineyard of 80 year old grenache in Maury that surpassed itself this year and gave us the biggest crop we have ever had.  The wine is fermenting away and smells absolutely heavenly!

Summer work in the vineyards

Today was a little bit cooler here at Domaine Jones - that means not up in the high 30s. A cloudy sky meant that we could work in the vineyards until lunchtime.  Yes, there is still work to be done even though the summer holiday feeling is here.

It looks like the harvest will be 10 days late compared to last year so this means that some of our grapes, mainly those from the 100 year old carignan and grenache vines, will be out in the vineyards until the end of October.

So we have to make sure that they ripen properly and that they stay healthy.  This morning's job was to take off some of the leaves and branches so that the sun and air can get to the grapes.

Here is a picture of before and after on the same vine.  On the second photo, although there are still a lot of leaves, if you look carefully you can see the grapes (and JM's head).

Autumn is on its way and so is Jones Fitou

Picking ended at Domaine Jones on the 8th of October.  The last grapes we picked were in the Jones Fitou vineyard in Tuchan and there was a distinct autumnal feel with the leaves turning to dark crimson and the early morning mist hiding the Mont Tauch mountain. 

This will be an exciting year for Domaine Jones as the first ever Jones Fitou will be made.  It could not have been done though without my amazing Mum and Dad who courageously came to help towards the end of the harvest to bring in the first ever Jones FITOU.  

70 year old Carignan getting the snip

Pickers in dawn mist 

Getting the job done in style

What are you doing Jean Marc?

This week we were back in action in the vatican decuving the small vat of amazing Carignan.  We are falling in love with this wine - it is really concentrated, rich and very black and smells delicious.  We have transfered the free run juice to an oak barrel and the pressed skins are still in the back of my pick up.