After spending a lovely day together last autumn, we are very happy to introduce the wonderful wines of Auvergne vigneronne Catherine Dumora.
Originally from just south of Bordeaux, Catherine studied anthropology and travelled the world gaining experience and an appreciation for the ways of farming from yesteryear. Eventually relocating to the Auvergne, she discovered a group of talented, visionary vignerons making a kind of wine she felt an instant connection to. In 2012 she began working in vineyards alongside her partner at the time, Manu Duveau, with the two producing some truly memorable wines under various monikers.
In 2019 Catherine moved to Lamontgie in the the Puy de Dôme’s south to start afresh and began tending three hectares of vines between forty and eighty years old, spread out across small parcels hidden amongst meadows and forest. Facing west, the vines benefit from a constant breeze and are planted over a fascinating mix of granite, quartz and sand, offering an interesting counterpoint to the basalt soils that define much of the region.
In the vineyards Catherine adopts a minimalist approach, working by hand with little in the way of equipment. There is a real focus on soil health and the promotion of plants that are beneficial to the vines. So far she has almost entirely eschewed the use of treatments, though having suffered significant loses, in the future her focus will be on infusions of wild plants to give the vines the extra strength they need.
In the cellar, Catherine describes her approach as being led by intuition, instinct, feeling and emotion. She decides how to proceed based on the fruits of each harvest and aims merely to guide the wine on its journey from plant to glass. In doing so she is producing some of the most thoughtful and original wines we’ve tasted from this most exciting of regions.
These wines all come from the 2020 vintage, a challenging year in which hail twice damaged the vines and Catherine made very few treatments, meaning there was a lot of sorting to be done during the harvest. She chose to macerate only the healthiest of bunches, whilst the majority was simply pressed as it arrived at the cave. From what was undoubtedly a difficult vintage, Catherine has managed to produce light, perfumed wines with a wonderful purity of fruit.
Catherine’s wines are now available on Tutto a Casa