My dream wine came to me in a dream.I dreamt I was back in 1948, when Fitou was first granted appellation status. Back then I could have added 10% Macabeu to the Carignan and Grenache we are permitted to use today. Adding a portion of white to a red wine blend has precedent; it has given us some of the greatest wines of the Rhone, where Viognier is added to Syrah. Macabeu would make the wine lighter, fruitier and silkier than traditional Fitou. The grapes would be fermented, red and white together, which means that with appellation rules being as they are, I couldn’t call it Fitou (despite being the blend that won appellation status in the first place).

Turning restriction into opportunity, I would call it “Sunshine after the rain” which is what my mum still promises me when things are going wrong.

And, let’s face it, for the last year, things haven’t been going very right.

Then I woke up.
And I realised I had everything I needed to make my dream wine.
I don’t have a single, sprawling vineyard. I have many small, inaccessible plots around the village of Tuchan. They are different, one from another, but they have one thing in common – old, tough, gnarled vines, giving me grapes of extraordinary character

One of my vineyards is planted with 80-year-old Macabeu, Grenache and Carignan wines.
Fermenting these grapes together would give these ancient vines a raison d’etre, make them economically viable and be their salvation.

I must rescue these vines that the accountant keeps telling us to rip them up because they cost so much to work. But accountants don’t make wine

These old vines get to be old because they are deep in the terroir of the Languedoc. In the face of fierce winds and blazing sun, they produce amazing grapes year after year. The yield is small, but I think they are the best grapes in the Languedoc, These would be the heart of the wine I can make for Angels.

To further finesse the wine, I would add grapes from the lovingly tended vines belonging to my husband Jean Marc, and also cherry pick old vineyards in and around Tuchan saving them from impending ripping up as farmers just can’t afford to farm them.

My rule-breaking, co-fermented, old vine, preservation formula not-quite-Fitou, gives you an opportunity to join me and Jean Marc on a monthly “virtual” vineyard visit. It will be the next best thing to actually being here and we’ll take you through the whole season up to, and beyond, the harvest. You will see first-hand all the hard work that goes into the making of “Sunshine after the Rain” from vineyard to bottling and at the same time take in the beautiful scenery in our part of the Languedoc. You will see the wine being made in our boutique winery in the old train shed here in Tuchan. It will become so much more than a bottle of wine – a ticket to a little escapism whilst the world gets back to normal.

And to put a final cerise on the gateau, when you can travel again, those who make it to Tuchan bringing a cork from my dream wine will enjoy a glass or two from one of the best viewpoints in the whole Languedoc terroir – the Rock

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