Ah Fitou!! now you are talking about a proper French wine. I wouldn't necessarily want to live in Fitou (too remote for my liking), but what great wines they produce. I always think that the wines of the Fitou vineyards in Southern France remind me of drinking a Rioja. The deep flavours of these red wines hit you about 30 seconds after tasting.

I never normally take much notice of the suggestion on the back of the bottle about what food that particular wine should be paired with. But when the main Fitou website (Fitou AOC) suggests that Fitou is the perfect accompaniment to a Cassoulet or a Wild Boar Stew, then there is really no argument against that. Basically, the wine is hearty enough to cut through even the richest and most stodgy food.

Fitou is a large vineyard situated at the start of the Corbieres hills, north of Perpignan in Southern France. As you drive up the A9 motorway from Perpignan to Montpellier, the Fitou vineyards stretch out either side of you, from the flat plains on the coast to the rocky mountains inland. Each year, the Fitou vineyards produce around 500 million bottles of wine. There are over 350 wine growers in the Fitou wine region and around 40 individual wine makers. The biggest export market for Fitou wines remains the UK (160m bottles per year), Belgium (45 m bottles) and Sweden (9.4m bottles).

The dominant vine variety is Carignan which constitutes 40% of any blend. Carignan grapes, have always been the backbone of Fitou wines, as the vines grow well in the poor dry limestone and schist soils. The local wines are often blended with Grenache, Llandoner Pelut, Mourvedre and Syrah grapes to provide the depth of flavour and complexity. The Fitou wines are made for drinking young (ie, within 3 years of being bottled) and tend to be tannic with fresh fruit flavours.

Best Languedoc wines: Fitou

The large village of Fitou, which lies at the centre of the Fitou wine region, is an unremarkable sort of place. It is a long, stretched-out village, with views down over the Etang de Leucate (a coastal lake) and out to the Mediterranean sea. During the winter and late spring the village gets buffeted by strong winds which blow down over the nearby Corbieres hills. On the hills above Fitou, there is a plethora of wind turbines which turn faster than any wind turbine I have ever seen.

The Fitou wine region is actually split into two parts. One area surrounds the village of Fitou (which is mostly coastal vineyards) and the other has the village of Tuchan as its centre. The Fitou wine region contains around 5-6 other smaller villages, such as the pretty village of Opoul-Périllos (where we first stayed when we moved over to France in 2006), Treilles and Paziols. But the countryside is largely dominated by vineyards and rocky hills and nothing much else.

The one fact that I find fascinating about this area, has nothing to do with wine. The village of Tuchan has a population of only about 800 people (which has declined by about 60% since the late 19th Century). In Tuchan, there are just two passions in life: Wine and Rugby. I find it incredible, that the rugby team of this small village (Club Olympique Tuchan) is the 5 times winner of the French Rugby Union Championship: in 1954, 1978, 1997, 1998 and 1999. The Championship covers all 1,800 amateur French Rugby teams in France, so this was no small achievement. 

Mont Tauch Fitou wines South France

The celebrated Wine Critic, Janice Robinson, has some pretty choice words about the wines from Fitou. She states that there are some pretty mediocre Fitou wines and you have to be careful when choosing what to drink. As she states:

". . . the Fitou wine region has enormous potential, but it is largely unrealised, perhaps because the dominant co-operatives, with the admirable exception of the Cave de Mont-Tauch, have been slow to realise that quality is the key to survival . . ."

[Source: Janice Robinson Wine Blog]

I also have great faith in the Wine Co-operative at Tuchan, that produces the popular Mont Tauch wines (see the Mont Tauch website). Normally, I tend to avoid co-operative wines in France, but the Mont Tauch Co-operative is a notably exception.

The Mont Tauch Cave Co-operative has been in operation for over 100 years and was first established in 1913. However, during the 1980's and 1990's it's reputation was poor. It was mainly associated with low quality drinking wines. That all changed in 1998 with the appointment of a new Head Winemaker and the creation of a 15 strong management committee.

Head winemaker Michel Marty, who has led the Mont Tauch cooperative for the last 20 years, has overseen an impressive investment in both the winery and in the vineyards of its members. Over €15 million euros has been spent on upgrading the wine making equipment, as well as revolutionizing the sales & marketing operation.

He has also rigorously enforced a policy of only paying Mont Tauch wine growers based on the quality of the finished wine. For the top quality “Grand Cru” level, only 25% of the grapes submitted by local vineyards, makes it through the system. The result is a consistently high standard of wine.

Today, Mont Tauch wines account for six out of every 10 bottles of Fitou consumed in the UK.

Domaine Jones - excellent Fitou wines from South France

Another Fitou wine maker to showcase, is the British wine producer, Katie Jones. Back in 2008, Katie Jones bought 12 hectares of vineyards in the shadow of Queribus Castle, which she re-branded as Domaine Jones. Katie has been a resident in the Tuchan area since the mid-1990's. She had given up her job at a UK wine importer, to take up a job in the sales & marketing team with the Mont Tauch co-operative in the South of France.

Domaine Jones started out with a wine making philosophy of using the grapes from each individual vineyard, rather than blending grapes together. In addition to this, the Domaine employs traditional, down–to-earth farming methods and innovative winemaking techniques. The seasoned vines (over 70 years old), the high altitude and the poor stony soil, produced naturally very low-yielding vines. But this fitted perfectly with the wine-making philosophy of Katie Jones - the lower the yield, the higher the quality.

Domaine Jones also only uses traditional grape varieties, some of which are extremely rare. So for the red wines they grow Carignan, Grenache Noir, Lledoner Pelut and Syrah. The little known Lledoner Pelut, sometimes known as Hairy Grenache, was once a plentiful grape variety in the Tuchan vineyards.

For the white wines, they cultivate Grenache gris, Grenache blanc, Macabeu, Muscat and Carignan gris.

Vine adoption

Domaine Jones also run an excellent scheme for customers to adopt their own individual vine. As Katie Jones explains:

Hundreds of old vines are ripped up or abandoned every year. At Domaine Jones, we care for old vines not only because they are in harmony with the terroir but we also believe that they make the best quality wine.

The result of the scheme, is that hundreds of vines have been protected from being ripped up and the money raised helps pay for their ongoing upkeep.

When a customer adopts a vine, not only can they come and visit it and christen it with a name of their choosing, but the Owner will also receive a personalised adoption certificate, a photo of the vine, an Old Vine Adopters t-shirt plus a 10% discount on wines bought online or at the Domaine Jones. 

For more information of the Adopt a Vine scheme, please visit: Domaine Jones - Adopt a Vine

Domaine Jones, 1 Rue de la Glacière, 11350 Tuchan, France.

Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Website: www.domainejones.com.

Fitou wines from the Languedoc

I would perhaps put Fitou wines in the same category as a Cahors or Bergerac wine. They are not in the Top Division, like a Bordeaux or Burgundy. They are comfortably second division wines. They also don't have the brand recognition of a Côtes de Provence or Cotes du Rhône. They are deep, powerful wines that are probably best drunk with your supper. I wouldn't say that they are the wines to have for an Apero, but then that is only my personal opinion.

The only downside with Fitou wines is that they tend to be quite strong and if you have too much you get the dreaded Fitou head in the morning. After a bottle of Fitou I always try and switch to something lighter, but sometimes the temptation is too much!!!

My choice of Fitou wines would include:

• Mont Tauch 2021
• Rocflamboyant Fitou, La Grande Reserve 2021. This Fitou wine is extremely popular with the locals and it even outsells its more famous Mont Tauch sibling.
• Les Crouzels 2022

For more information about great Languedoc wines please see our article Best Languedoc Wines. Information about other Fitou wines and the Fitou wine appellation can be found at Fitou AOC.

If you would like to stay close to the Fitou wine region and the hills of the Corbieres, then Go Languedoc a number of Perpignan properties in this region.