Please wait ...
2023 Harvest Reports Are In!

2023 Harvest Reports
<p>The 2023 vintage was certainly a mixed bag throughout Europe, particulaly in Italy where climactic hardships wrecked havoc troughout many regions. Whether is was a good or a bad year for the producers we represent, these harvest reports prove, as always, just how tireless and daunting their work is.</p>
<p>We are extremely fortunate to be able to represent this hard work year-in, year-out. So as we start our new year, let's give a big cheers to those who get the wine in our glasses! </p>
<p><a href="https://louisdressner.com/harvest-reports">You can go read all 31 2023 harvest reports here. </a></p>
Article
Tips For Navigating the Website.

How to navigate the website.
<p><u><strong>Desktop vs Mobile:</strong></u></p>
<p>We know people use their phones a lot, so we've worked hard on ensuring the site functions well on mobile devices. Having said that, we recommend using a laptop/desktop to optimally peruse our content. </p>
<p><u><strong>Glossary:</strong></u></p>
<p>At its core, this has always been a website written for wine professionals *attempting* to glean information on the wines we import - and hopefully see a picture of the vigneron's dog. Since the jargon can be so technical, we've added an <glossary term="glossary" title="1427">interactive glossary</glossary> to the text for those unfamiliar with the baffllingly complex world of wine terminology. Even if you're a seasoned pro, you might learn a thing or two. And if you'd rather read the content without the glossary, simply head to the main menu bar and turn it off. </p>
<p> "<u><strong>Our Wines" Section: </strong></u></p>
<p>In the "Our Wines" section, we've offered a variety of filter categories for you to explore and discover all the cuvées we import. These filters can be combined together to narrow down results. If you hit a wall with no results, simply erase one of the filters or clear all filters. </p>
<p><u><strong>Technical Information For Each Wine:</strong></u></p>
<p>78% of the wines we import have extremely detailed technical information when clicked on, dare I say the most technical anywhere on the internet. Half of these are probably woefully outdated.</p>
<p><u><strong>Search:</strong></u></p>
<p>If you know what producer or wine you are searching for, the search should quickly autofill what you need. Go ahead, give it a whirl. You can also hit enter after searching and skup the autofill.</p>
<p><strong><u>Hyperlinks/PDFs:</u></strong></p>
<p>Every single piece of content on the website has its own hyperlink. This means you can easily share a specific producer page, article, wine or filter combination with anyone. You can also save or print out PDF's bt clicking the PDF icon.</p>
<p><u><strong>Copy/Paste:</strong></u></p>
<p>Due to the website's design, if you need to copy/paste anything, the glossary needs to be turned off for the text to paste correctly. We recommend using the PDF feature instead. </p>
<p>Also, if you are going to straight up use our writing verbatim, PLEASE credit us when doing so. Seems obvious but we see it happen all the time. </p>
<p><u><strong>A Shit-Ton of Written Content:</strong></u></p>
<p>The articles themselves can often be very long, and for this reason we developed a Propriety Pop Up System™ where you can easily scroll through various articles/wines and "pop out" to efficiently look at the rest of the content.</p>
<p>We've tried our best to pack as many dog pictures as possible in there, but the digital ink has been spilled: the cumulation of decades' worth of writings from Joe, Denyse, Kevin and Jules is here for you to read. A huge part of the work with this new website was to find better ways to condense and extract essential information you need without getting lost in all that BORING text. </p>
<p>We still think you should check it out. Don't worry, there are plenty of pictures. And you might even find the writing interesting. Or funny. Or both. </p>
Article
EXPLORE

La Petite Empreinte Producer Profile
<p>La Petite Empreinte, or “the little footprint” is an <glossary term="Estate" title="427">estate</glossary> 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 <glossary term="Hectare" title="523">hectares</glossary> of vines from A to Z, producing very limited quantities of <span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Pinot Noir" title="805">Pinot Noir</glossary><span>,</span></span></span> <glossary term="Gamay" title="478">Gamay</glossary> and <span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Sauvignon Blanc" title="927">Sauvignon Blanc</glossary><span>.</span></span></span></p>
<p>After meeting and falling in love during respective apprenticeships in the <glossary term="Jura" title="560">Jura</glossary> (Julien Labet for Mélissa and Jean-François Ganevat for Romain), the couple agreed to move back to <glossary term="Burgundy" title="212">Burgundy</glossary> so Romain could join his parents Alice and Olivier at their eponymous <glossary term="Estate" title="427">estate</glossary> in <span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Chablis" title="262">Chablis</glossary><span>.</span></span></span> Always set on doing her own thing, Mélissa set forth to find some <glossary term="Parcel" title="760">parcels</glossary> to work on her own. Through a program designed to help young producers find land to start their own <span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Estate" title="427">estates</glossary><span>,</span></span></span> she was able start renting <glossary term="Plot" title="1133">plots</glossary> in 2020, eventually purchasing the vines in 2022.</p>
<p>The first and largest sector consists of two <glossary term="Plot" title="1133">plots</glossary> totaling one <span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Hectare" title="523">hectare</glossary><span>,</span></span></span> all planted in 1990. Located in <glossary term="Saint-Bris" title="979">Saint-Bris</glossary> on an idyllic <glossary term="Coteau" title="345">coteau</glossary> of <glossary term="Kimmeridgian" title="565">Kimmeridgian</glossary> <glossary term="Limestone" title="596">limestone</glossary> overlooking the Yonne river, <glossary term="Pinot Noir" title="805">Pinot Noir</glossary> is the main variety planted here, along with 10 <glossary term="Are" title="1208">ares</glossary> of <span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Gamay" title="478">Gamay</glossary><span>.</span></span></span> Two wines are produced from this land: a <glossary term="Pinot Noir" title="805">Pinot</glossary> called “Mas a Tierra” and a <glossary term="Magnum" title="617">magnum</glossary> only <glossary term="Cuvée" title="363">cuvée</glossary> of <span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Gamay" title="478">Gamay</glossary><span>.</span></span></span> For the latter, a single <glossary term="Barrel" title="142">barrel</glossary> is produced each <span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Vintage" title="1109">vintage</glossary><span>.</span></span></span> </p>
<p>The second <glossary term="Parcel" title="760">parcel</glossary> consists of 40 <glossary term="Are" title="1208">ares</glossary> of <span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Pinot Noir" title="805">Pinot Noir</glossary><span>,</span></span></span> from which they produce the <glossary term="Cuvée" title="363">cuvée</glossary> “Tapis Rouge”. The vines here are <glossary term="Exposition" title="430">exposed</glossary> full South and were planted in 1978 on a steep <glossary term="Coteau" title="345">coteau</glossary> of <glossary term="Portlandian" title="1398">Portlandian</glossary> <span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Limestone" title="596">limestone</glossary><span>.</span></span></span> In addition, a yet-to-be released <glossary term="Saint-Bris" title="979">Saint-Bris</glossary> is produced from two small <span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Plot" title="1133">plots</glossary><span>,</span></span></span> the first 30 years old and <glossary term="Exposition" title="430">exposed</glossary> West, the other planted in 1959 on white <span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Clay" title="301">clay</glossary><span>,</span></span></span> <glossary term="Exposition" title="430">exposed</glossary> North and very low producing due to <span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Court Noué" title="1250">court noué</glossary><span>.</span></span></span></p>
<p>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 <span class="zalup"><span>(<glossary term="Pruning" title="834">pruning</glossary><span>,</span></span></span> <glossary term="Green Harvest" title="507">green harvest</glossary>…) with Romain doing the tractor work. The vines are <glossary term="Organic Certification" title="260">certified organic</glossary> or in <glossary term="Conversion" title="332">conversion</glossary> towards <span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Organic Certification" title="260">certification</glossary><span>.</span></span></span> <glossary term="Cover Crop" title="1255">Cover crops</glossary> have been incorporated since 2021 and, like Alice and Olivier in Chablis, they have been planting fruit trees in the vines to encourage <glossary term="Biodiversity" title="1162">biodiversity</glossary> and break up the <glossary term="Monoculture" title="671">monoculture</glossary> of <glossary term="Viticulture" title="1103">viticulture</glossary>/create stronger rhizome networks in the soil.</p>
<p>In the <span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Cellar" title="254">cellar</glossary><span>,</span></span></span> the couple work off instinct and communally make all <glossary term="Vinification" title="1104">vinification</glossary> decisions together. <glossary term="Maceration" title="610">Maceration</glossary> lengths, <glossary term="Pigeage/Punchdown" title="795">pigeages</glossary>/<glossary term="Remontage/Pumping Over" title="850">remontages</glossary> (or lack thereof) have varied each <span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Vintage" title="1109">vintage</glossary><span>,</span></span></span> but the wines all <glossary term="Fermentation" title="441">ferment</glossary> and <glossary term="Aging" title="74">age</glossary> in <glossary term="Old Oak" title="739">old barrels</glossary> with no <glossary term="Sulfites" title="993">S02</glossary> is added at any point. Everything is currently <glossary term="Vinification" title="1104">vinified</glossary> in the De Moor <span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Cellar" title="254">cellar</glossary><span>,</span></span></span> but Mélissa and Romain are in the process constructing their own, in all likelihood for the 2025 <span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Vintage" title="1109">vintage</glossary><span>.</span></span></span></p>