François Dhumes, Auvergne (Loire)

François Dhumes pouring his roséPérignat-sur-Allier, Auvergne, Loire
The first wine that I had in Auvergne was François Dhumes' rosé, and it was a welcome and refreshing respite in this sunny summer day.
François is a soft-spoken young vigneron, a native from Auvergne who shares his time between his own small surface of vineyards and outside work he makes for Patrick Bouju's vineyards and also for Vincent Tricot, another vigneron working organic. This helps him make a living and face the expenses of starting a winery.
Making a pause in the middle of the day, he and Patrick started to picnic under the shade of a tree with me as guest when Patrick had to drive back to his facility because a truck driver was waiting for a pallet of wine there (the freight company was supposed to call ahead to come take the wine but the truck just dropped without notice instead).
With the company of his two lovely dogs whom I discovered are keen amateurs of cheese rind, we chatted about his own work and winemaking. François Dhumes's vineyard is located at a short distance of Clermont-Ferrand (south-east of) on slopes with volcanic soils (browse to the bottom-right of this Loire Appellatios map and zoom when centered on the pink patch of the wine region of Auvergne).

François Dhumes working in the vineyardHis rosé was bottled 2 months earlier, it's very lightly perly with the remaining gaz and there's a bit of residual sugar. There's no SO2 at all in this wine, which is the norm for all the wines he makes. It's an ample and generous rosé, easy to drink, and I downed without restraint 2 or 3 pours of it, refraining with pain from filling my glass myself.
François Dhumes has one hectare of Gamay and another half hectare of Chardonnay. The Gamay rosé was pressed after being picked, vinified in resin vats, racked once, then another time before bottling. The malolactic fermentation was completed and there's 5 or 6 grams of residual sugar. On the sloppy vineyardFrançois Dhumes studied enology in Macon in Burgundy (BTS Viti-Oeno), then he worked 4 to 5 years for different estates in the Rhone, Valence, Crozes-Hermitage, 2 years in the south at Domaine de la Palunette near Lunel. This was a conventional type of winemaking and the vigneron there sold most of his production in bulk and made only 10 000 bottles to sell directly to the consumers. With these different jobs, he understood that he wasn't interested in conventional winemaking. He saw all these additions, beginning with lots of SO2 right at the harvest, and many other things, yeasts, enzymes, nutrients, plus tannins on some vintages. And repeatedly SO2 all along the vinification. That was definitely not the path he would follow. His vineyard - the river Allier in the farWe followed him as he drove to his vineyard in his white van. At the end of a bumpy dirt and grass road, we reached his vineyard on the slopes of Corent. Also sitting on a slope, it's surrounded by woods and overlooks the Allier valley, Allier being a major river in the region. There's lot of weeds and wild flowers on his vineyard. Like Patrick, he merely cuts the grass with a grass cutter ( a gas-powered string). They actually also bought together a small tractor that they can use for more serious tasks like plowing between the rows, when the inter-row width is large enough for the tractor.
For the harvest, he calls friends who come here helping several consecutive saturdays. They all have good time then, he says, it is pretty festive while work at the same time.
With the white grapes, he makes mostly sparkling (natural sparkling), picking relatively early with a level of 12° or 12,5°.
For the rosé, he notices that the Gamay went up very fast in alcohol in 2009 without fully-completed phenolic maturation. 2009 is a special year and he's not sure this vintage will have a long lifespan. He understands that the vintages conditions ask alternatively for more rosé or for more reds, the grapes conditions decide and he's trying to adapt. This last winter was pârticularly cold, he adds, and the snow stayed a long time all over the place. Happy dog in the vineyard in CorentHe brought his dogs along, they're happily running up and down the slope. The vineyard on the picture, which overlooks the river Allier flowing in the valley beneath, is planted with Gamay and makes about 1,2 hectare in one block. It's located at Corent, this mountain village near which remains were dug up, proving that a very ancient city of the Gauls was sitting there, as early as 100 B.C. The site was even inhabited since the neolithic era. Archeologic excavations showed that wine was consumed in large quantity in this town which reached several thousands souls at its peak, and lots of amphorae debris have been unearthed (see this page and this page). We've been walking near the site and I can tell you that all the fields nearby are so thick with ancient tiles- or amphorae debris that you can't lower your eyes on the ground without spotting the orange pieces. I brought back several of them, shame on me, but they were right on the dirt road...See this Corent page with pics of the village and of the excavation site. And here is a video on the excavations with interview of Mathieu Poux. Corent was possibly the capital of the Gauls, both on the religious front and commercially, and the archeology shows that the type of constructions there was much more advanced that what was previously thought to be the norm in the Gaul at that time (100 B.C.). It seems that this antique town was rich and that there were many exchanges with the outside world, for example they even drank wine imported from Italy, which, considering the transportation means of the time, was probably quite costly.
In spite of the huge potential for archeological discoveries on the Corent plateau, the French administration in charge of the archeology research has refused to let the Swiss archeologis Mathieu Poux keep digging in Corent... The freeze on research on such a prolific site is mind bogling, some people say that it could be because it shadows the archeological site of Gergovie near there, Gergovie being the "official" city of the Gauls extolled by the state research bodies. The recent discoveries unearthed near Corent are putting into question years of official archeology and some people in place in the ministry ressent that. There's been lots of protests about this unexplained will of the ministry to freeze the diggings in Corent (see this Forum).

On this vineyard like in the rest of the Corent mountain, the soil nature results from volcanic activity, it's mostly basalt with clay/limestone. François Dhumes sprayed once this year, he says. This Gamay vineyard here is about 30 years old and it is exposed on south/south-east, this is a rented vineyard. Asked about the work here, he says that it's small enough to let him time to work for others : he works for Patrick Bouju and for Vincent Tricot who is also farming organic. The stairs to the cellarHis Gamay vineyard is more productive on its lower slope and has much smaller yields on the upper part, so he makes his rosé from the lower, more productive part and the reds with the low-yields part. He began to work as an independant vigneron with this plot, in 2006, and he got the Chardonnay one in 2007. He didn't augment his vineyard surface since. He wants to take his time, see how things are going and anyway he doesn't like to hurry. In 2008 for example the conditions were quite bad and he says that it was a good thing that he worked on the side for others because it softens the financial strain. He doesn't want to get endebted with the banks and he prefers to do things at his own rythm without mortgage pressure. He says that he values more quality of life than making money.

We drive now to Pérignat-sur-Allier to see his cellar and facility. Hi cellar opens on a courtyard shared by several families and the door, the stairs of the cellar, every detail point to a very old cellar with a long history of winemaking.
Once down the flight of stairs, you bath with delight in the cool air of the cellar (it can be hot outside in Auvergne). François got everything he needs here to vinify the grapes of his one hectare something : resin vats, a few casks, a 4-spout gravity filler. Near his 4-spout bottle filler François Dhumes has a small production with his 1,4 hectare : something like 4000 bottles when the conditions are good. But when the year is difficult, like in 2008 with a cold winter, a rainy spring and an awful summer, he made only 2500 bottles. Really hard, he was happy not to be tied to the banks with mortgages.
He sells his wine to cavistes (not in Paris yet, though) and individual customers. There's also a natural-wine bar in Clermont-Ferrand (the major town near there) where his wines can be found : le Bistrot Bancal is a tiny wine bar where you'll find other gems from the Auvergne wine scene.
François Dhumes also takes part to a natural-wine event which takes place in the region, in Chateldon : Dix Vins Cochons. It's a festive and warmful tasting event where he meets lots of individual customers.
Speaking of his public rates for the wines, the rosé cost about 5 €, the reds 6 € and 8 €, the Pet'Nat 9 € and the still Chardonnay 8 €. Nap in the cellarHis different cuvées are :
Summertime (rosé)
Jeu de Vin (Gamay, carbonic maceration)
Minettev (Gamay, long maceration)
Tête de Bulle (Chard pet'nat)
Nuit Blanche (still Chard). All these cuvées make 1000 bottles each, in short. They're all unfined, unfiltered wine without anyy additives or lab yeasts.
His two reds are :
the first red is the result of 3 weeks of carbonic maceration in resin vats with thereafter 6 months of élevage. The second red, a Gamay also, is made from destemmed grapes macerating 7 to 8 weeks, with an élevage of 12 months in casks (till november). He doesn't move this wine, he just tops it from time to time.
Along with Patrick Bouju and Hacer, we tasted a few wines at François' cellar :
__ François Dhumes Nuit Blanche 2009. Still Chardonnay. Picked at 12°, 12,5° he says, he looks to pick with freshness. He began to bottle his 2007 still Chardonnay recently, after nearly 3 years of élevage. In 2009, he made only one cask of it, the rest of the Chard is used for the sparkling. Nice pear aromas.
__ François Dhumes, Nuit Blanche 2007, from another cask. Very light oxydative notes on the nose. Lightly perly mouth. Intensity in the mouth, some residual sugar. There's some volatile here he says. A year ago, this cask had still 25 grams of residual sugar. He had 3 casks of this wine initially.
__ François Dhumes Nuit Blanche 2007. This one is very oxydative. 2007 was his first vintage for whites, he began his reds one year earlier in 2006. Every one in the party loves this wine, there's even some curry notes in the end of the mouth, beautiful. There are also eau de vie aromas, even ether notes. Nice vibration in the mouth, last well.Patrick feels also a salty feel here.
__ François Dhumes Minette 2009. From a cask too. Gamay, bottled end of november. Clear robe. Nice minerality, I feel, with the thin tannins behind. On the nose, cooked morello cherries, also acidulous candy. This Gamay comes from the volcanic soil of Corent, vines aged 30 years. Asked about what surface he's like to reach in terms of vineyard, he says that he's not sure he wants to grow at this point. Maybe 2 hectares would be fine (he works on 1,4 hectare right now)..
The pic on right show a veil on the surface of the wine in a half-filled cask.

François Dhumes exports his wines to Japan through Cosmojun (Junko Arai), and to Belgium François Dhumes30 bis rue de l'Allier63800 Pérignat-sur-Allierphone + 33 6 16 99 72 93frdhumes [at] yahoo [dot] frwww.francois-dhumes.fr Fixing wires on the poles