L’Egrappille

L'Egrappille is the natural wine project of Catherine Dumora, a former anthropologist who traded fieldwork in the forests of Brazil and deserts of Morocco for the volcanic hills of Auvergne. Founded in 2012 near Clermont-Ferrand with roughly 2.5 hectares across 25 small parcels, the domaine gained immediate acclaim with its debut 2013 vintage. In 2019, Catherine relocated to Lamontgie, south of Issoire, where she recovered old vines on steep west-facing slopes along the banks of the river Bansat. The name "Egrappille" comes from the French verb grappiller, meaning to gather grapes here and there — a fitting description of Catherine's practice of gleaning fruit from abandoned vineyard parcels, sometimes sourcing from as far as Haute-Loire.