The Small Footprint, the Greater Emotions & the Zero-Sulfur Hand
La Petite Empreinte is a declaration of intent in liquid form — a young natural wine estate in the Chablisien founded by Mélissa Bazin and Romain De Moor in 2020, with a first vintage so microscopic it barely registered on the scales of Burgundy. From two hectares of vines on Kimmeridgian and Portlandian limestone in Saint-Bris-le-Vineux and Courgis, they craft zero-sulfur wines of such purity and emotion that they have already earned a place alongside the most exciting names in French natural wine. Mélissa, originally from the Ardèche, cut her teeth with Gérald Oustric, Sylvain Bock, and Julien Labet in the Jura. Romain, son of the legendary Alice and Olivier De Moor of Chablis, apprenticed with Jean-François Ganevat, Marcel Lapierre, and Mas del Perié. Together, they do 100% of the work themselves — no employees, no shortcuts — while raising three young daughters and building their own cellar. Their motto is their manifesto: "Petite Empreinte means Small Footprint, but for Greater Emotions."
The Ardèche Girl, the Chablis Boy & the Jura Hand
The story of La Petite Empreinte begins not in a vineyard but in a Jura cellar — where two apprentices, each following their own path of conviction, met and fell in love. Mélissa Bazin is originally from the Ardèche in the south of France, a region of volcanic soils, chestnut forests, and stubborn independence. She has always been passionate about organic agriculture, and she took her first steps in the wine world through the work of Gérald Oustric — the legendary Ardèche natural winemaker behind Le Mazel — before doing work placements with Sylvain Bock, Les Deux Terres, and Jérôme Jouret. Her formal training came through a work-study diploma at Domaine Labet in the Jura — the estate of Julien Labet, one of the most precise and innovative natural winemakers in France, where she learned the art of low-intervention vinification and the discipline of organic viticulture.
Romain De Moor was born into wine royalty — not the château kind, but the vigneron kind. He is the son of Alice and Olivier De Moor, whose eponymous estate in Courgis, Chablis is one of the most respected and sought-after names in natural wine, known for crystalline, zero-sulfur expressions of Chablis that have redefined the appellation. Romain spent his childhood in the vineyards with his parents, absorbing the rhythms of organic farming and the patience of natural winemaking before he ever made a wine himself. His formal apprenticeships took him to the Jura to work with Jean-François Ganevat — the maestro of Arbois, whose wines are as intellectually rigorous as they are emotionally generous — and to Beaujolais to work with Marcel Lapierre — the godfather of natural wine, whose gentle, zero-additive approach to Gamay set the standard for a generation. He also spent time at Mas del Perié in the southwest, broadening his understanding of terroir across France's diverse wine regions.
Mélissa and Romain met in the Jura during their respective apprenticeships — she at Labet, he at Ganevat — and they agreed, as young lovers do, to build a life together. Initially, they wanted to settle in the Ardèche, where Mélissa's roots and her network of natural wine mentors offered a welcoming community. But Romain needed to return to Burgundy to help his parents at the family estate. In March 2020, in the middle of the first pandemic lockdown, they took a bet that would define their lives: they applied to take over a tiny vineyard in Saint-Bris-le-Vineux, a commune in the Yonne just south of Chablis. They won the application process — and in haste, had to move "back home" to Courgis, into the orbit of Alice and Olivier De Moor's estate, but with a vision entirely their own.
The 0.76-hectare vineyard they inherited was in a sorry state — overgrown, neglected, in desperate need of pruning and care. But Mélissa and Romain are not strangers to hard work. They began organic conversion immediately, planted trees for an agroforestry approach, incorporated cover crops to rebuild the soil, and set about restoring the vines with the same patience and precision they had learned from their mentors. The first vintage, 2020, produced a microscopic release of just two wines: a Sauvignon Blanc called "Persévérance" — named for the perseverance required to start an estate in the middle of a lockdown — and a Pinot Noir called "Tapis Rouge" — the red carpet rolled out for their first vintage. In 2022, they purchased the vines they had been renting, and they have since replanted an additional hectare, bringing their total to approximately two hectares with an aim of reaching 3.5 hectares — a size Mélissa could manage on her own while being a mother to their three daughters.
Today, they do 100% of the work themselves — no employees, no hired hands. Mélissa is responsible for all manual work in the vines — pruning, green harvest, canopy management, harvest — while Romain handles the tractor work and shares cellar decisions. They vinify everything in the cellar of Alice and Olivier De Moor — a temporary arrangement that has become a family collaboration — but they are in the process of constructing their own cellar, likely to be operational for the 2025 vintage. The couple works off instinct, making all vinification decisions together communally. Their wines are certified organic or in conversion, and their commitment to zero sulfur is absolute — with the sole exception of their Saint-Bris 2020, which required a minimal addition due to the difficult conditions of that first vintage. Everything else is unfined, unfiltered, and untouched by SO₂.
"Petite Empreinte means Small Footprint, but for Greater Emotions!"
— Mélissa Bazin & Romain De Moor, La Petite Empreinte
Saint-Bris-le-Vineux, the Chablisien & the Kimmeridgian Hand
The Chablisien is the northernmost outpost of Burgundy — a region of steep coteaux, ancient limestone, and a climate so marginal that every vintage is a gamble. It is a place that demands humility from the vigneron and rewards patience with wines of crystalline mineral precision. Saint-Bris-le-Vineux sits just south of Chablis, in the Yonne department, and is the only appellation in Burgundy that permits Sauvignon Blanc — a historical anomaly that gives the commune a unique identity within the Pinot-Chardonnay monoculture of the region. The De Moor family has been based in Courgis, a neighbouring village, for decades, and Romain's return to this landscape was not a choice but a homecoming.
La Petite Empreinte's vineyards are divided into three distinct sectors, each with its own soil, exposure, and personality. The first and largest sector consists of two plots totalling one hectare, all planted in 1990. Located in Saint-Bris on an idyllic coteau of Kimmeridgian limestone overlooking the Yonne river, this is the heart of the estate. Pinot Noir is the main variety here, along with 10 ares (0.1 hectares) of Gamay — the two red grapes that define the northern Burgundian palette. From this land, Mélissa and Romain produce "Màs a Tierra" — a Coteaux Bourguignons Pinot Noir that has already become their signature — and a magnum-only cuvée of Gamay, produced in a single barrel each vintage. The Kimmeridgian limestone — the same geological formation that gives Chablis its famous oyster-shell minerality — provides a chalky, marine backbone to the wines, preserving acidity and lending a saline, stony precision that is unmistakably Chablisien.
The second parcel consists of 40 ares of Pinot Noir from which they produce the cuvée "Tapis Rouge". These vines are exposed full South and were planted in 1978 on a steep coteau of Portlandian limestone — a younger, harder limestone formation that gives wines of greater structure, density, and aging potential. The full southern exposure means these vines ripen earlier and more fully than the Kimmeridgian parcels, producing Pinot Noir of surprising depth and power for such a young estate. The steep slope demands manual work — there is no mechanised harvesting here — and the old vines, now nearly 50 years old, produce low yields of concentrated, complex fruit.
The third sector is a yet-to-be-released Saint-Bris produced from two small plots of Sauvignon Blanc. The first is 30 years old and exposed West; the second is a historic parcel planted in 1959 on white clay, exposed North, and very low-yielding due to court noué — a viral vine disease that stunts growth and reduces yields to a trickle. These old, diseased vines are not a liability but a treasure: they produce Sauvignon Blanc of extraordinary concentration and mineral intensity, with a genetic link to the pre-modern past of Saint-Bris that few other estates can match. Like Alice and Olivier De Moor in Chablis, Mélissa and Romain have been planting fruit trees in the vines to encourage biodiversity, break up the monoculture of viticulture, and create stronger rhizome networks in the soil. This is not biodynamics as marketing; it is agroforestry as agriculture — the same polyculture philosophy that their mentors practice, adapted to the specific conditions of the Chablisien.
Saint-Bris-le-Vineux is the only commune in Burgundy where Sauvignon Blanc is permitted — a historical quirk that gives the appellation a unique identity. Situated just south of Chablis, it shares the same Kimmeridgian and Portlandian limestone soils, the same continental climate, and the same marginal viticultural conditions. For Mélissa and Romain, Saint-Bris is not a lesser appellation but a distinctive one — a place where Pinot Noir and Sauvignon Blanc coexist on the same coteaux, and where the Chablisien's mineral precision meets the Sauvignon Blanc's aromatic exuberance. The village is small, the vineyards are steep, and the vignerons are few — but the wines, in the right hands, are extraordinary.
The one-hectare sector in Saint-Bris sits on an idyllic coteau of Kimmeridgian limestone — the same geological formation that underpins the great vineyards of Chablis. This 155-million-year-old sedimentary rock, rich in marine fossils and oyster shells, gives the wines their signature minerality: a chalky, saline, almost maritime precision that is the hallmark of the Chablisien. The Pinot Noir from this parcel — Màs a Tierra — carries this mineral imprint in its bones, producing a wine of surprising elegance and stony freshness for a red. The 10 ares of Gamay, co-planted on the same slope, yield a magnum-only cuvée of extraordinary purity. For Mélissa and Romain, the Kimmeridgian is not merely soil; it is the voice of the wine.
The 40-are Tapis Rouge parcel is planted on Portlandian limestone — a younger, harder formation than the Kimmeridgian — and exposed full South on a steep coteau. This combination of soil and sun gives the Pinot Noir from this parcel a different character entirely: more structure, more density, more ripeness, and greater aging potential. The Portlandian limestone provides a firmer, more structured backbone, while the southern exposure ensures full phenolic ripeness even in the Chablisien's marginal climate. The vines, planted in 1978, are now nearly 50 years old and produce low yields of concentrated, complex fruit. For Mélissa and Romain, this parcel is the estate's most powerful voice — the Pinot Noir that speaks with the weight of age and the authority of sun.
From the moment they took over the vineyard in 2020, Mélissa and Romain began organic conversion — a process that demands patience, discipline, and a willingness to accept lower yields in the short term for the long-term health of the soil. They have incorporated cover crops since 2021 to rebuild soil structure and biodiversity, and they have planted fruit trees among the vines to break up the monoculture of viticulture and create stronger rhizome networks in the soil. This agroforestry approach, learned from Alice and Olivier De Moor, is not biodynamics as a certification strategy but as a way of life — a recognition that a vineyard is not an isolated agricultural unit but part of a larger ecosystem. The result is fruit that arrives in the cellar alive, healthy, and complex — grapes that require minimal intervention because the vineyard has already done the work.
Zero Sulfur, Whole Bunch & the Instinct Hand
Mélissa and Romain De Moor's winemaking philosophy is one of radical transparency and familial instinct. Having learned from the most precise and least interventionist winemakers in France — Ganevat, Lapierre, Labet, and their own parents — they approach the cellar not as a place of transformation but as a place of protection. Their guiding principle is simple: beautiful grapes so as to intervene as little as possible during vinification. The vineyard does the work; the cellar merely preserves what the vineyard has created. This is not laziness or dogma; it is the confidence of experience — the knowledge that healthy, organically farmed fruit from old vines on great limestone does not need enzymes, selected yeasts, fining, filtration, or sulfur to become a great wine.
The reds are made with whole-bunch fermentation — stems and all — a technique that Mélissa and Romain vary vintage by vintage, adjusting maceration lengths, pigeages, and remontages according to the fruit and their instincts. There is no recipe, no fixed protocol; each vintage is a new conversation between the vineyard and the vigneron. The wines ferment and age in old barrels — no new oak, no toast, no artifice — allowing the fruit and the terroir to speak without the interference of wood. The zero-sulfur commitment is absolute: no SO₂ is added at any point in the process, with the sole exception of the Saint-Bris 2020, which required a minimal addition due to the difficult conditions of that first, chaotic vintage. Everything is unfined and unfiltered — the wines are bottled with their natural clarity, or natural haze, intact.
The whites — Sauvignon Blanc from the Saint-Bris plots — are handled with the same gentleness. The "Persévérance" is fermented with indigenous yeasts and aged in old barrels, with no sulfur, no fining, no filtration. The yet-to-be-released Saint-Bris from the 1959 white-clay parcel will be treated with even more reverence: old vines, low yields, north exposure, court noué — a combination that promises a wine of extraordinary concentration and mineral depth. The couple makes all vinification decisions communally, working off instinct and shared intuition rather than laboratory analysis or external consultation. This is winemaking as partnership — between two people, between two terroirs, between the vine and the cellar.
What emerges is a portfolio of striking purity, emotional depth, and unmistakable Chablisien identity. The "Màs a Tierra" is bright, red-fruited, and mineral — a Pinot Noir that carries the oyster-shell chalk of Kimmeridgian limestone in its bones. The "Tapis Rouge" is deeper, more structured, and more powerful — the Portlandian sun speaking in a darker register. The Gamay is fresh, joyful, and gulpable — a magnum-only cuvée that captures the pleasure of young vines on great soil. The "Persévérance" is expressive, mineral, and alive — Sauvignon Blanc as the Chablisien expresses it, not as New Zealand imagines it. And the upcoming Saint-Bris from 1959 vines promises to be the estate's most profound white — a wine of historical weight and mineral transcendence. This is winemaking for truth, terroir, and the quiet dignity of the small footprint.
Zero Sulfur, Whole Bunch & the Instinct Covenant
The guiding principle of La Petite Empreinte is that the wine has already been made by the vineyard — the vigneron's job is to protect it from excess. The organic farming and agroforestry provide healthy, complex grapes with indigenous yeast populations that have evolved on the estate. The whole-bunch fermentation extracts only what is necessary — tannins, aromatics, and structure from the stems — without harsh manipulation. The old barrels preserve freshness and mineral transparency. The zero-sulfur approach maintains the wine's living character, allowing it to evolve in bottle and in glass with the same vitality it had in the vineyard. And the communal, instinctive decision-making ensures that each cuvée is a true document of its specific parcel, vintage, and the two people who made it. The cellar is not a laboratory but a continuation of the family kitchen: a place where Mélissa and Romain apply the lessons of their mentors and their parents to produce wines that are unmistakably, quietly, defiantly La Petite Empreinte.
Màs a Tierra, Tapis Rouge, Persévérance & the Terroir Hand
The La Petite Empreinte portfolio is a geological and emotional map of the Chablisien in liquid form — each cuvée named for a specific philosophy, a specific parcel, or a specific moment in the estate's young history, each bottle a document of the extraordinary limestone terroir that Mélissa and Romain have chosen to steward. The wines span Pinot Noir from Kimmeridgian and Portlandian limestone, Gamay from the same slopes, and Sauvignon Blanc from historic white-clay parcels — all united by zero sulfur, whole-bunch fermentation, indigenous yeast, and élevage in old barrels. Production is microscopic — the entire estate is barely two hectares, and many cuvées are produced in quantities of just a few barrels or a single barrel. The wines are exported through a curated network of natural wine specialists — including Louis/Dressner, Marée Haute, and Cave Pur Jus — and they represent one of the most exciting and authentic expressions of the young natural wine movement in Burgundy available today.
The Small Footprint, the Three Daughters & the Greater Emotions Hand
La Petite Empreinte is not merely a winery; it is a monument to the courage of beginning — a place where two young vignerons, in the middle of a global pandemic, bet everything on 0.76 hectares of neglected vines and turned them into one of the most exciting new estates in Burgundy. In an era when the wine world is obsessed with scale, celebrity, and speculation, Mélissa and Romain have demonstrated that the most profound wines sometimes come from the smallest footprints — farmed by two people with no employees, made with zero sulfur, and raised alongside three young daughters. Their presence in the natural wine community — alongside their mentors at Labet and Ganevat, alongside Romain's parents Alice and Olivier De Moor, and alongside the great names of the Chablisien — is not a matter of marketing or connections; it is a matter of pure quality and unmistakable intent.
The legacy of La Petite Empreinte is the legacy of the apprentice's hand becoming the master's. Mélissa did not inherit a vineyard; she built one from scratch, applying the lessons of Gérald Oustric, Sylvain Bock, and Julien Labet to a terroir she had never known before. Romain did not rest on his parents' reputation; he stepped out of their shadow to create something entirely his own, with a partner who shares his values but brings her own voice. Together, they have shown that the natural wine movement is not a closed circle of inherited estates but an open field of possibility — where a young couple with three daughters, no employees, and two hectares of vines can produce wines that rival the great names of the region in purity, emotion, and terroir expression.
The future of the project is tied to the future of small-scale, family natural wine in Burgundy — to the growing recognition that the best wines come not from the most hectares or the most famous appellations but from the most committed, most sensitive, and most courageous stewards of living soil. As Màs a Tierra continues to prove that Kimmeridgian Pinot Noir can be a wine of genuine elegance and mineral pleasure, as Tapis Rouge demonstrates that Portlandian limestone can produce Pinot of surprising structure and depth, as the Gamay magnum reminds the world that joy is a legitimate emotion in wine, and as the upcoming Saint-Bris from 1959 vines promises to be one of the most profound expressions of Sauvignon Blanc in Burgundy, Mélissa and Romain De Moor remain what they have always intended to be: a mother and father, a wife and husband, two vignerons who farm a tiny footprint in the Chablisien — structured not by marketing or technology but by Kimmeridgian limestone, Portlandian sun, whole-bunch fermentation, zero sulfur, three daughters, and the eternal reminder that a small footprint can produce greater emotions than a large one. The story of this estate is the story of two apprentices who became masters, and of the wines that carry their love, their labour, and their terroir into every glass.
"Petite Empreinte means Small Footprint, but for Greater Emotions!"
— Mélissa Bazin & Romain De Moor, La Petite Empreinte