So how was the 2016 vintage? Well after a rather dramatic start with the forest fire on the 5th of September some of my old vines acted as firebreaks and actually stopped the fire as it rampaged its way through the tinder dry garrigue buffeted by 100 km an hour winds. It definitely was coming around the mountain and it took 300 firemen and 24 hours to finally put out the fire that burnt 2,500 acres of scrubland.
We were worried that there may be smoke taint in some of the wines especially those that acted as a firebreak and were literally scorched by the flames. We harvested these grapes from the first couple of rows separately and made one barrel of ‘Fitou Fumé’. These grapes had been dried out by the fire which concentrated the sugar so the ferment was slow and difficult. There was a potential alcohol of but in the end we decided to leave it sweet so we have just one barrel of forest fire concentrated red - fortunately with no smoke signal in site. Now all we have to do is think of a name.
But the heat of the fire wasn’t the only thing to scorch the vines. Pathetic rainfall especially in the winter (125mm compared with 190 mm in 2015) gave the smallest berries that I have ever seen in my seven vintages at Domaine Jones. The Syrah in particular was affected, with berries half the size of the last vintage. The Syrah that did stand out though was the St Roch vineyard, one of our highest vineyards at 400m on chalky clay soils. This wine adds freshness and peppery notes to our Les Perles de Jones Syrah which is a blend of 3 different vineyards. The other two are at lower altitudes (300m and 150m above sea-level) on chalky clay and schist soils.
Each vineyard is vinified separately before being blended in the spring following the harvest. At Domaine Jones we have always vinified each vineyard separately and locals must think that we are completely bonkers to do so as we have over 20 vineyards and most are less than two acres. But after seven years there is a satisfaction when you can taste the wine from each different vineyard and you feel like you are getting to know the character of each plot - which ones perform better than others in which vintages and what they bring to the final blend.
