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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
How does The New Website Work?
This is very exciting stuff!
<p><u><strong>Desktop vs Mobile:</strong></u></p>
<p>We know it's 2020 and people use their phones a lot. So we've worked hard on ensuring the site functions well on mobile (especially compared to what it once was). Having said that, desktop is the recommended way of perusing the site.</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 language 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, it will frankly teach you 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 new "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, simply erase one of the filters or clear all filters. </p>
<p><u><strong>Actual Information About the Wines:</strong></u></p>
<p>Speaking of the wines, the number one complaint we would get from customers was the lack of technical information on the wines themselves. It's not a coincidence that we spend the vast majority of our energy focusing on the people behind the wines and their dogs; it's what we dig about what we do.</p>
<p>Having said that, 95% of the wines we import now have EXTREMELY detailed technical information, dare I say the most technical anywhere on the internet. Please enjoy now while they are up to date, knowing that half of these will probably be totally wrong by next vintage. </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.</p>
<p><strong><u>Hyperlinks:</u></strong></p>
<p>Everything on the website has a hyperlink now. This means you can easily share a specific producer page, article, wine or filter combination with anyone. </p>
<p><u><strong>Copy/Paste:</strong></u></p>
<p>If you need to copy/paste anything, the glossary needs to be turned off for the text to paste correctly. 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>
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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>