diff --git a/src/aerovaldb/jsondb/jsonfiledb.py b/src/aerovaldb/jsondb/jsonfiledb.py
index e4daf82..4613912 100644
--- a/src/aerovaldb/jsondb/jsonfiledb.py
+++ b/src/aerovaldb/jsondb/jsonfiledb.py
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@
 import orjson
 from async_lru import alru_cache
 from packaging.version import Version
-from pkg_resources import get_distribution  # type: ignore
+from pkg_resources import DistributionNotFound, get_distribution  # type: ignore
 
 from aerovaldb.aerovaldb import AerovalDB
 from aerovaldb.exceptions import UnusedArguments, TemplateNotFound
@@ -224,7 +224,16 @@ async def _get_version(self, project: str, experiment: str) -> Version:
         try:
             config = await self.get_config(project, experiment)
         except FileNotFoundError:
-            return Version("0.0.1")
+            try:
+                # If pyaerocom is installed in the current environment, but no config has
+                # been written, we use the version of the installed pyaerocom. This is
+                # important for tests to work correctly, and for files to be written
+                # correctly if the config file happens to be written after data files.
+                version = Version(get_distribution("pyaerocom").version)
+            except DistributionNotFound:
+                version = Version("0.0.1")
+            finally:
+                return version
         except orjson.JSONDecodeError:
             # Work around for https://github.com/metno/aerovaldb/issues/28
             return Version("0.14.0")
@@ -233,14 +242,7 @@ async def _get_version(self, project: str, experiment: str) -> Version:
             version_str = config["exp_info"]["pyaerocom_version"]
             version = Version(version_str)
         except KeyError:
-            try:
-                # If pyaerocom is installed in the current environment, but no config has
-                # been written, we use the version of the installed pyaerocom. This is
-                # important for tests to work correctly, and for files to be written
-                # correctly if the config file happens to be written after data files.
-                version = Version(get_distribution("pyaerocom").version)
-            except KeyError:
-                version = Version("0.0.1")
+            version = Version("0.0.1")
 
         return version