Having spent 17 years as the export director of a giant Languedoc wine co-operative, Katie Jones decided to become a vigneron in her own right.

The word on the street was that a co-operative member had decided to retire and sell his vineyards. The 2.7-hectare holding was within the shadow of the old Cathar ruin of Chateau Queribus and contained some highly-treasured old-vine grenache planted in black slate and producing very low yields.

The owner had previously sold his grapes directly to the co-operative, but it was Katie’s dream to produce and bottle a wine under her own label, Domaine Jones.

Inevitably, at the 11th hour, there was a major hitch, as not all of the grenache was red. A portion of the vines turned out to be the white, grenache gris, with a small percentage of muscat, at which point Katie nearly withdrew.

Nevertheless, she was persuaded that grenache gris had potential and the sale went through. Katie has completed her second harvest and spoke of how physically tiring a vigneron’s life can be.

Her winery is located in a converted garage in the village of Tuchan, which lies in the Fitou AOC. The vines, though, are situated in the adjoining AOC, Maury, which is in Roussillon. France being France, Katie is unable to label her wines Maury because they are made in Fitou, so she labels them Vin de France, a table-wine classification. While less grand, it enables her to avoid all manner of petty rules and regulations.

All this is a far cry from the Mont-Tauch co-operative. Known as the “King of Fitou”, it accounts for more than 50% of the production for the entire AOC, equating to 15 million bottles of wine per annum.

Mont-Tauch is the leading Languedoc exporter to the UK and is well-respected and organised. For example, their Terroirs d’Altitude 2008 (Morrisons) and Les Douze 2008 (Majestic) are great testimonials for two red wines that over-deliver on price.