Dumien-Serrette

  • Cornas, Rhône, France
Dumien-Serrette
  • A small estate, but one that shouldn’t be overlooked: The part-destemmed Patou takes its name from the lieu-dit where it’s grown, and makes for a slim but powerful and focused Cornas, straight as an arrow. For a classic, ageworthy Cornas.

    — Matt Walls, Decanter

Domaine Dumien-Serrette is the type of throw-back, traditional winery that you hope to stumble upon when you are searching for wines from the Northern Rhone (but rarely ever find). We met Gilbert Serrette in 2008. You can imagine our surprise when we walked into the cellar and saw an old basket-press. Our mood, and hopes, immediately rose. It was the same press that had been used by Nicolas’ grandfather and they were still using it to make their wines. 

The wines are made by the Dumien-Serrette family in a tiny cellar that is under the town’s church. They make approximately 1000 cases total per year, not enough to live off of without the supplement of a full-time job. The wines are a throw-back to a style that is found less and less today. Nicolas Serrette, who took over from his father Gilbert in the early 2000’s is making investments in the winery and adding land slowly in hopes to afford working at the winery full-time before he retires.

Nicolas learned how to make wine the old-fashioned way, from his father, Gilbert Serrette and Gilbert learned from his father-in-law, Henri Dumien. The Dumien name can be found mentioned in Cornas as far back as 1515. The Dumien family bought three and a half hectares in 1925, thirteen years before it became an appellation. Most of this land, three hectares, is found in the Patou vineyard, which has primarily granitic soils; the remainder is located in Les Savaux. The vines in Patou date back to the 1920’s, with some exceeding 100 years old. After years of selling in bulk to negociants such as Delas, Chapoutier and Jaboulet, Domaine Dumien-Serrette began to bottle their own wine in 1983.

They own mostly old vines and farming is organic, but not certified. No herbicides or pesticides are used and there is not much of a threat of mildew in the north. The vines are trained into arched two-vine canopies to protect against wind and hail. The Patou vineyard is very steep and Gilbert, in his retirement, but still helping out Nicolas, insists on tending the vines using a special cart he invented which pulls him slowly up the rows while he works.

In the cellar, they generally de-stem half of the fruit. It’s fermented spontaneously in cement tanks. The basket press was finally retired a few years ago in exchange for a very nice gentle vertical press, but thankfully the profile of the wine has not changed. They do not punch down, opting to submerge the cap with a grate for a gentle extraction. After malo, which generally happens before Christmas, the wine is aged for two years in two to seven year old barrels. It’s then bottled without filtration or fining.

In recent years, Nicolas has bought a bit more land, the reason they needed a new press. Serrette now makes Saint Peray, and an IGP Collines Rhodaniennes  Syrah that is just south of Cornas near the Rhone River. In 2023, he added one hectare in Cornas, but the vines don’t have fruit yet. And in 2022, they planted .25 hectare of Syrah in Saint Joseph, first vintage is anticipated in 2025.

The Dumien-Serrette wines are exceptional and in a class of their own. The entire Serrette family came to New York to celebrate Bowler’s 20th anniversary and Gilbert was so impressed to see their wines from their tiny village of Cornas in New York and sold throughout the United States. When he started with his father-in-law in the 1980’s, he never could have imagined this outcome. We are honored to be a part of their story.

Image Producer PRODUCT Description Country / Region

DB9744-22
Sustainable
JD:93-95 VM:91-94
Dumien-Serrette Cornas "Patou" Vieilles Vignes
2022
Syrah
100% Syrah. Made with partial whole-cluster fermentation. Aged two years in two to seven year-old barrels. "Patou" is the top site south of...
France

DB9744-21
Sustainable
JS:92 WS:92
Dumien-Serrette Cornas "Patou" Vieilles Vignes
2021
Syrah
100% Syrah. Grapes are pressed with an old-style basket press and aged 2 years in 2-7 year-old barrels. Some stems are kept for...
France

DB9743-22
Sustainable
Dumien-Serrette Clone of Cornas "Cuvée Henri" Vieilles Vignes
2022
Syrah
Over the years Gilbert's neighbor, Noël Verset, continually asked Gilbert why he didn't make a special bottling of only his oldest...
France

DB9743-21
Sustainable
WS:94
Dumien-Serrette Cornas "Cuvée Henri" Vieilles Vignes
2021
Syrah
Over the years Gilbert's neighbor, Noël Verset, continually asked Gilbert why he didn't make a special bottling of only his oldest...
France

DB9727-21
Sustainable
WS:90
Dumien-Serrette Saint-Peray "Grand Gachet"
2021
Marsanne
New! 100% Marsanne from the tiny appellation of Saint-Peray, south of Cornas. Serrette purchased land here and planted vines in 2017. The...
France

DB9727-22
Sustainable
Dumien-Serrette Saint-Peray "Grand Gachet"
2022
Marsanne
100% Marsanne from the tiny appellation of Saint-Peray, south of Cornas. Serrette purchased land here and planted vines in 2017. The soil...
France

DB9740-22
Sustainable
Dumien-Serrette Syrah "Le Moulin" VdF
2022
Syrah
Nicolas Serrette purchased land just south of the village of Cornas and near the Rhone River in 2013 and in 2018 he was able to bottle his...
France