Jonathan Healey: Terroirist

By Ellen Hall

DID you have to read the subtitle a second time? I did when I found it on Jonathan Healey’s web page. Not to worry! If he is a fanatic, it is about wine. And vintage MG’s. And red Harleys. Also teaching and writing.

I met Jonathan in a cosy cafe on a windy Wednesday in March. He is tall and lean, a rugged-looking Yorkshireman in his faded denim shirt. His conversation roams from London to California to Australia to France with side trips to Japan and Egypt. Not bad for a man who claims he hates leaving his Argelès home.

He discovered Argelès through a friend about 10 years ago and bought his own place in 2002. When he settled here he looked for a book on the wines of Roussillon. Unable to find one, he wrote it himself: 'The Wines of Roussillon'. Then he was contacted to write 'Discovering Wine Country: South of France' published in 2005. Both books are available at Caves du Roussillon opposite the market in Collioure.

Jonathan’s current book project is aimed not at wine drinkers but at wine makers. It’s focus is how to develop tourism on wine domains. He believes there is a lot to be done here in Roussillon and in France in general. “In California, vineyards can earn one third of their income from tourism. Here it’s 2 or 3 per cent.” His wine tourism course at the University of Perpignan is popular with French and foreign students.

From a “wine culture” at home in Yorkshire, Jonathan went on to study wine in California, near the Napa Valley. At every opportunity he’d jump onto his red Harley Davidson following Highway 29 to explore the vineyards.

“Like a lot of English people I’ve come to understand wines through new world wines. When you get a bottle of Chardonnay or Merlot or Sauvignon, you know what grape variety you are getting.” Where then does terroir fit in? “Terroir is extremely important. You have to match grape variety with a terroir which suits it.”

What hot tips can he give about the best Roussillon wines? Jonathan says he favours independent winemakers who produce handmade wines. Here in Roussillon the terroirs of interest are the Agly Valley, the Aspres and the Albères. Look for “the hilly parts of the department, those with unforgiving soils, rocky slopes”. Jonathan says young winemakers are more switched on in terms of good cellar practices, modern vinification methods. “The Catalans are focused on tradition. The best combination is old world wine with new world techniques and methods.”

Future projects include a book to help English people rediscover French wines through the knowledge gained from their experience with grape varieties. For instance, if you like Chardonnay, then try a white wine from Burgundy.

He is also writing a piece of fiction about a homosexual scandal within Ronald Reagan’s campaign team when he was running for Governor of California in the 1966.

During his studies in California in the 80’s, Jonathan started writing for the university paper. From there he went on to present TV programs. At his home in Argelès he writes at a large desk beside a picture window with a view of the Golfe du Lion. And a cup of tea!

Wine and wine-tasting he saves for the wine tours he leads in the area. One-, two- or three-day tours in Collioure, the Agly or the Aspres are available with wine-tasting in the morning and vineyard tours in the afternoon. Why not contact him and become a terroirist yourself? Or join his organic winemaking club and start making your own-label French red wine?

First published in P-O Life.

Beating the French at their own game

Peter-Danton de Rouffignac meets an Englishman 

who became a wine expert in France

Of all the careers to choose, becoming a wine expert is probably not the easiest, especially when you are English and newly arrived in France. But that’s exactly what editor, author and acknowledged wine expert Jonathan Healey has managed to do in his region of Languedoc-Roussillon. He is the first person to write a guide, in English, to the wines of Roussillon and has carved a niche for himself advising local vignerons on how to market their wines to the English world. His latest venture is to set up his own wine club, which will enable members to help to cultivate – and drink – their own organic wines.

“It’s not exactly what I planned when I moved to the region seven years ago,” admits Jonathan, a forty-something who looks half his age. “I had been on holiday here a few times with my parents and knew the region well. The local wines had suffered from a poor reputation and over-production, but I set out to study them and was surprised by what I discovered”.

By chance Yorkshire-born Jonathan had spent his teens and early twenties in California, where he had gone originally with the idea of taking a short holiday. He ended up completing his studies at a local community college, and went on to complete a BA and MA at the University of California-Davis.

“UC-Davis happens to be the foremost wine school on the West Coast of America and I started taking a few courses as part of my degree. I also worked for a local wine maker and learnt a lot about the New World approach to wine making,” Jonathan explains. In between studying and working, Jonathan was also editing the university’s daily newspaper and presenting local television programmes. It was a full life. He was on his way to completing his doctorate when a tragic motorcyle accident cut short his university career and he had to return to England. “It was a tough time for me,” he admits, “but I got into university teaching, and I thought that’s where my career would progress”.

However, increasingly fed up with London and the academic life, Jonathan decided to abandon his teaching career and settle in Languedoc-Roussillon. “I had no clear ideas about how I would earn a living,” he says, “though a business partner and I had some ideas about developing tourism in the area, part of which included running cultural and wine tours. By chance this got me into contact with a local publisher and very soon I was writing my first wine book. The publishers very bravely decided to take on the first book in English about the region’s wines. And in the course of my researches I met a number of exciting, often young vignerons, who were producing some distinctive wines, more than a dozen of which have AOC classification”.

Not quite sure how to take this new English expert, the local producers gradually warmed to Jonathan’s enthusiasm. Gradually a business was built up helping to translate brochures – and increasingly websites – into understandable English (“some of it was appalling” Jonathan notes), advising on PR and marketing, and introducing the idea of wine-based tourism to encourage visitors to visit local vineyards and try the wines out for themselves.

As a vegetarian and keen on personal fitness – Jonathan cycles, swims and scuba dives – Jonathan was naturally attracted to a small but growing number of local wine producers who were in the process of switching to organic production.

“Progress is relatively slow in France overall” Jonathan explains, “probably accounting for less than 2 per cent of total wine production. I was fascinated by the total contrast to California, where production is often highly mechanised, and dependant on chemical fertilisers and sometimes genetically modified grapes. It is the antithesis of everything I believe in about how wine can and should be made”.

Not surprisingly to launch his wine club Jonathan has turned to a local producer, now in his third year of going organic and about to receive formal certification. “We have insisted on a total ban on chemical fertilisers and plouging the vines will be done by horses and harvesting entirely by hand. We have designed the club in such a way that members can participate in the main production events over a period of twelve months, including tasks such as pruning and training the vines, to the more exciting harvesting, fermenting, bottling and tasting.

“The club year will run from March to the following February, and members will be able to join in as many events as they wish. I already have a group of friends who are fulltimes residents in the region who want to join, while others may wish to come down only during holiday times,” Jonathan explains.

Always willing to pass on his expertise, Jonathan emphasises that club members will benefit from practical guidance by local producers and ‘classroom’ sessions to supplement their knowledge. The club is based in an ancient Roussillon mas which was formerly the site of a fortified castle occupied by the Knights Templar. “Members have the chance to learn a bit of local history as well as organic wine-making” says Jonathan. “What nicer way to spend a few days in the Roussillon sunshine?”.

First published in French Property News (June, 2009)