Thank you to importer Louis/Dressner for this profile of De Moor:

La Petite Empreinte, or “the little footprint” is an estate that truly lives up to its name. Founded by Mélissa Bazin with the help of her husband Romain De Moor in 2020, together the couple work a whopping two hectares of vines from A to Z, producing very limited quantities of Pinot Noir, Gamay and Sauvignon Blanc.

After meeting and falling in love during respective apprenticeships in the Jura (Julien Labet for Mélissa and Jean-François Ganevat for Romain), the couple agreed to move back to Burgundy so Romain could join his parents Alice and Olivier at their eponymous estate in Chablis. Always set on doing her own thing, Mélissa set forth to find some parcels to work on her own. Through a program designed to help young producers find land to start their own estates, she was able start renting plots in 2020, eventually purchasing the vines in 2022.

The first and largest sector consists of two plots totaling one hectare, all planted in 1990. Located in Saint-Bris on an idyllic coteau of Kimmeridgian limestone overlooking the Yonne river, Pinot Noir is the main variety planted here, along with 10 ares of Gamay. Two wines are produced from this land: a Pinot called “Mas a Tierra” and a magnum only cuvée of Gamay. For the latter, a single barrel is produced each vintage.

The second parcel consists of 40 ares of Pinot Noir, from which they produce the cuvée “Tapis Rouge”. The vines here are exposed full South and were planted in 1978 on a steep coteau of Portlandian limestone. In addition, a yet-to-be released Saint-Bris is produced from two small plots, the first 30 years old and exposed West, the other planted in 1959 on white clay, exposed North and very low producing due to court noué.

Bazin and De Moor, in addition to raising two young daughters and Romain working full time with his parents, do 100% of the work and currently have no employees. Mélissa is responsable for the manual work in the vines  (pruning, green harvest…) with Romain doing the tractor work. The vines are certified organic or in conversion towards certification. Cover crops have been incorporated since 2021 and, like Alice and Olivier in Chablis, they have been planting fruit trees in the vines to encourage biodiversity and break up the monoculture of viticulture/create stronger rhizome networks in the soil.

In the cellar, the couple work off instinct and communally make all vinification decisions together. Maceration lengths, pigeages/remontages (or lack thereof) have varied each vintage, but the wines all ferment and age in old barrels with no S02 is added at any point. Everything is currently vinified in the De Moor cellar, but Mélissa and Romain are in the process constructing their own, in all likelihood for the 2025 vintage.