German
The Domaine de la Petite Empreinte, owned by Mélissa Bazin and Romain De Moor, is still very young; the first vintage was not vinified until 2020. The name De Moor may sound familiar to many, as Romain is the son of Alice and Olivier De Moor, owners of the famous Chablis winery. Together with his wife Mélissa, who is also a trained oenologist, he founded his own domaine, focusing—in contrast to his parents’ winery—on Pinot Noir, Gamay, and Sauvignon Blanc. The couple learned their craft in the Jura—Mélissa at the Labet winery and Romain with Jean-François Ganevat. Under the guidance of the Jura’s grand masters, they were introduced to the fundamentals of organic farming and natural winemaking.
The two produce calm yet powerful wines, with plenty of juiciness and an elegant structure. The grapes are harvested at peak ripeness, but the winemaking process is then focused on achieving delicacy. In classic Burgundian style, whole-cluster vinification is used for the red wine; after a relatively short maceration, with minimal agitation, the wine is pressed and transferred exclusively to used barrels of various sizes. The vineyards are located in the largely unknown Saint-Bris appellation, south of Chablis. The soil is characterized by limestone and clay, resulting in wines that are somewhat more robust than those from the Côte d’Or. This yields an unpretentious style of wine with deep, berry-like fruit, a full-bodied texture, and a soft body.