Katie Jones, Fitou Rouge 2021

Fitou is not the name of a grape but the name of a small village on the Mediterranean coast between Narbonne and Perpignan. There are 8 other villages that are allowed to produce Fitou, 5 in the low lying coastal area and 4 inland on the higher ground of the Corbières mountains.

Most other growers in the area wouldn’t be interested in Katie Jones' modest 12 hectares of vines which spread across vineyards in Maury (her first), Paziols and Tuchan. The sites are small, remote and, to most vignerons - too much like hard work. Katie looks for low yields with high quality, and the rather poor, sloping ground that the very old, traditional vines cling to gives just that. Most of the work including harvesting has to be done by hand, but the results are more than worth the toil! Having worked in marketing for a Co-Operative for many years, Katie decided to get in to wine making, leaving her job and starting out in 2008. Some spiteful individuals vandalised her little winery in 2013, and almost her entire harvest went quite literally down the drain. She has now established a new, high-security winery in what was once an old train shed in the village of Tuchan, abandoned since 1935.