Domaine Jones is 10 years old! – 10 years since Katie Jones embarked on a mad adventure to make wines in the Roussillon/Fitou region of southern France at Tuchan (11 Aude, Occitanie)
“We started in 2009 with just one vineyard in the village of Maury and made a couple of hundred cases.
The plan at that stage was only ever to make two wines – Jones red and Jones white.
Today we produce 40 000 bottles from 14 tiny vineyards in and around the village of Tuchan and have a range of 11 wines.
We probably have one of the most daring business plans ever – 14 vineyards scattered over 30 km, exclusively old vines that need a lot of looking after, limited production wines from an area not known for expensive wines.
But we have built our business on doing things differently and it seems to be working. When you read in the press that we are ‘taking Fitou to the next level’ and ‘a leading light’ it pays to be different.
We have come up to some pretty strong opposition locally and that doesn’t include the wild boar, forest fires and storm force winds. And we have moved winery 3 times to finally find the perfect building in the train shed.
So what does the next 10 years hold – well, we won’t be buying anymore vineyards! But we will be concentrating on getting the most from our existing 14 vineyards. And that means registering them as organic and even trying out homeopathic remedies on our vines using the local herbs.
In the winery we will continue to understand each different grape variety and adapt wine making accordingly like we did with the Lledoner or Hairy Grenache grape!”
Focussing on a range of low yields from old vines, the Domaine now produces an impressive range of red and white wine
See more including a blog at Domaine Jones