Catherine Dumora

Auvergne, France

Catherine welcoming her neighbor

For even the most gifted winemakers working in France, 2021 proved to be one of the most challenging years in recent record, with many scrambling to purchase grapes as the reality that there wasn’t going to be much fruit set in their vineyards at the onset of harvest. Catherine Dumora was not immune to this phenomenon, and while browsing Leboncoin, which is pretty much the Craigslist of France, she came across an older gentleman grower in Minervois, who had a certain vibe and appeal, and who was selling just the amount of fruit that Catherine needed to not completely write the year off of the calendar. She took a truck a few hours down south, picked up the fruit, and returned to her home in Auvergne to make some wine. I remember Dumora recounting this story to me in early summer 2022 over a bottle of Domaine de Peyra Caillasse 2005 that I had brought over as a blind—after a few wrong guesses Catherine zeroed in on the origin of the ethereal Auvergne elixir, shocked at its existence on her table; a moment that reminded me of the simple awe and power of connection that we sometimes owe to wine. Catherine’s older Gamays, made in conjunction with her former partner Manu, were bottles that set me off in my own personal path of natural wine, and I still consider her one of the masters of the grape. Sharing that stunning bottle with her was one of the least things I could do. Anyways, in true Dumora spirit, these two wines from a doomy but not doomed 2021 vintage are pure expressions of both self and place, even if we now count Minervois into the equation as third place—singular Syrah and singing Sauvignon from one of the more spirited producers working in the field today.

1x per cuvée per customer please

(R)ti 2021
Sauvignon Blanc
$42

ZiD(U) 2021
Syrah
$42