Katie Jones, Vieux Cepages Macabeu 2019

Only a limited amount of Macabeu from vineyard Le Colombier in Tuchan is produced. It is just a stone's throw from the centre of Tuchan and is south facing catching the morning sun. It is probably one of the last remaining macabeu vineyards in the village as most have been ripped up and replanted with more profitable red grape varieties.

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 looksfor 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 tobe 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.