Yahou Fatal

Yahou Fatal is the project of Manu Deveau and Catherine Dumora based in the village of Blanzat in the Auvergne. Now discontinued, these are rare and profound treasures from very old vines and a pair of very serious, sensitive and creative wine making and agricultural minds.

The name Yahou Fatal was Manu's nickname at university. While he’s right up there with the most knowledgeable and passionate people we've met when it comes to farming vines, he also adores fermenting apples and pears, and loves to blend them with wine and grapes. His love for good cider is every bit as strong as his love for good wine. His knowledge of grass management, the application of compost, the different roles of microbes at various depths in the soil and geology is profound.

Catherine's approach to agriculture is ultra-sensitive and maternal. Vine nourishment, care and balance have the top priority, and she is very comfortable with the very low yields that come as a result. Her passion for low-yielding vines and patient, painstaking farming reached its zenith in her L’egrappille cuvee, made each year using berry by berry selection from abandoned vineyards.

They have a shared love for old vines. Everything produced has come from either very old vines or trees - always very low yielding, always made in minute quantities, and always incredibly high-quality in terms of palate saturation.

Together, they reached a point in the winemaking where they felt oak would no longer play a role in either vinification or elevage. Over time they have become ever-more transfixed by purity and transparency and eventually decided to use only demi-john, fiberglass or amphora.

Despite separating last year, Catherine and Manu still work together in the vineyard and are good friends. They have two wonderful boys together, Etienne and Jean.

Catherine has now moved to Bansat, about 25 minutes drive south of Clermont-Ferrand and has leased a parcel there on a westerly slope that Manu has described as the Grand-Cru of the Auvergne. The soils are very complex — a rich and fascinating mix of limestone, granite, schist and quartz. From the 2019 harvest, all of the L'egrappille wines will come from this site.

Auvergne, France

 

Information on previous wines

  • 2018 40% apple juice that was heavily reduced over the stove, adding additional flavour and of course concentrating acidity and sugar, blended with fresh apple juice from the same orchard. The blend began ferment in tank and then was run to bottle to finish fermentation. The final alcohol is 8%. This has a little less brulee character than the 2017.

    2017 40% apple juice that was heavily reduced over the stove, adding additional flavour and of course concentrating acidity and sugar, blended with fresh apple juice from the same orchard. The blend began ferment in tank and then was run to bottle to finish fermentation. The final alcohol is 8%.

  • 2018 Chardonnay from the 109 vineyard and Blanzat apples. A warmer year, resulting in a slightly riper and richer style of fruit but still with well-judged balance between the grapes and the apples.

    2017 Chardonnay from the 109 vineyard and Blanzat apples.

    2015 Chardonnay from the 109 vineyard and Blanzat apples.

  • 2018 Pears from a single orchard in the northern Auvergne. 60% of the harvest was macerated as pulp and the other 40% pressed directly. Dry and lightly sparkling with super fine chalky tannins.

  • 2016 (2eme mise) From a quarter hectare, 100-year-old and very low-yielding parcel of gamay d’Auvergne. A great vintage. From the second bottling, which saw an extra year in barrel.

  • 2018 Old Auvergne apple and pear varieties, crushed, with 30% macerated, and pressed to tank for fermentation, with fermentation finished in bottle. Dry and medium bodied.

  • 2016 100% gamay d’Auvergne grown in Blanzat. Bright fruit, with a brisk style of acidity suited to serving at a cooler temperature.

  • 2018 From a tiny, single parcel of gamay d’auvergne on the outskirts of Clermont-Ferrand. Bottled under crown seal, with a whisper of CO2 on opening. Serious, with deep varietal fruit.

  • Rosé gamay d’Auvergne and hybrids. Negoce fruit

    2018 Lower alcohol with brisk acidity and a slight sappiness, with a gently smoky impression of soil.

    2016 At once deep but very refreshing, dry and sappy.

  • 2017 Sparkling rosé made with 100% hybrids. Fine, with delicate red fruit and a sappy, taught structure.

  • 2018 Red Sparkling red wine made from 100% gamay d’Auvergne grown on two neighbouring, limestone-rich vineyards near Blanzat

    2018 Pink The entirety of the harvest of the Fait Main vineyard in 2018. The phenolic ripening in this site in 2018 was a little blocked due to the heat of the year so Catherine and Manu decided to make direct press sparkling so as to avoid green tannins. Very concentrated.

    2017 A blend of saignee from all the different gamay d’Auvergne sites. Due to frosts, the yields in 2017 were very low but the quality was soaring.

    2016 Gently sparkling gamay d’Auvergne. 11% ABV.

  • 2018 Berry selection of gamay d’Auvergne from abandoned, unpruned vines. Much crunchier acidity and crisper flavours than the rest of Catherine and Manu’s wines. Only 4 demijohns were made.

    2017 Prior to 2018, the l’egrappille cuvee was a single barrel solera from which just 60 bottles were drawn each year. The fruit from an abandoned, ancient vineyard in Renom was picked late each year with a potential alcohol of about 14.5% and then whole berries would be added back to the barrel to ferment with the solera.

    2016 Prior to 2018, the l’egrappille cuvee was a single barrel solera from which just 60 bottles were drawn each year. The fruit from an abandoned, ancient vineyard in Renom was picked late each year with a potential alcohol of about 14.5% and then whole berries would be added back to the barrel to ferment with the solera.

  • 100 year old gamay d’Auvergne grown on basalt near Blanzat, vinified as a sparkling red wine

    2018 The final vintage of this wine. A warm year.

    2017 Fully macerated. Deep red with earthy, foresty fruit. Precise and pure.

    2016 The last year this was vinified as a still wine. A good example of the rich earthiness of basalt and the deep, earthy forest fruit of gamay d’Auvergne.

    2015 A grand wine – deep, aromatic, relaxed and very complex.

  • 2018 Whole bunches of gamay d'Auvergne macerated in the juice of hybrids.

    2016 Whole bunches of gamay d'Auvergne macerated in the juice of hybrids.

  • 2016 Chardonnay, chenin blanc and vermentino. Round but fresh, elegant and very deep.

  • 2016 A berry-by-berry selection of botrytised gamay d’Auvergne, made into a direct-press dry white wine.

  • 2017 Fortified gamay d’Auvergne. (500ml).