Alice et Olivier De Moor Mont de Milieu Chablis Premier Cru Blanc 2020

Location: France, Burgundy

Winemaker: Alice et Olivier De Moor

Grapes: Chardonnay

Soil: Clay, limestone

From the Importer Louis/Dressner: Alice and Olivier De Moor live and work in Courgis, a small village 7km southwest of Chablis. It is where Olivier grew up, and his “old” cellar, the part where he ages his Chablis in oak barrels, is underneath his grandparents’ house. From the hill where Courgis sits, the view is of vineyards over hills all the way to the Chablis Grands Crus.

Olivier says the landscape has changed a lot in his lifetime, that all the woods, bushes and fallow land that dotted the hills have disappeared in favor of vines.

Alice is from the Jura, and the two met at a large Chablis estate where Olivier was in charge of the vineyards. Both are enologists, graduates of the Dijon enological school, with enough knowledge to take a radically different direction for their vines and wines than their neighbors. While the division of labor principally consists of Olivier in the vines and Alice in the cellar and office, both are equally omnipresent in every role and all decisions are made together.

They began their estate by planting three of -Bel-Air, Clardy and Rosette-in 1989. Of their first in 1994, they kept only 15and sold off the rest. They were still employed elsewhere, but quit that fall after leasing their vines: 0.55 of planted in 1902 and 0.40 of planted in 1950. For the next three years, they worked their four of vines while tending the vines of other winemakers to make a living. In 1996, they planted a large plot in (the is called "Champagne"). The whole area is highly , with soils formed millions of years ago in a warm, shallow sea. The here is rich in shellfish fossils, including oysters (exogyra virgula), urchins, bivalves and ammonites. There are three bottlings of :"L'Humeur du Temps", "Rosette" and "Bel-Air & Clardy", the last a blend of the two .

"L'Humeur du Temps" roughly translates to "The Mood of the Times" but is a double entrendre that also could mean "The Mood of the Weather". The idea with this is to capture a global snapshot of the versus the nuance of . In such, the wine comes from four that are separately then : Côte de l' Etang, Les Envers de Côte Chétif, Les Goulots de Jouan.

The Bel-Air and Clardy both have a shallow over layers of harder with fossils, a mix of and that is highly draining, even more so in Clardy, which has whiter .

"Rosette" has a more complex soil, and is much harder to work. The slopes up to a 40% incline, and the vineyard can roughly be separated in three distinct parts: the very top is eroded materials over hard rock; the mid-slope is directly over , which can quickly suffer from . Finally, the bottom part is rich in dense with some ,resulting in later ripening. They usually do two there, sometimes two weeks apart. They consider it their best .

These have none of the “normal” under ripeness of , nor are they marked by the gunpowder aromas created by an excess of . Olivier believes that in another era, had a buttery and nutty character similar to any from and reasonable ripeness. He follows the same reasoning for his from ,which is ripe and rich, so much so that they eventually had to it to .

The is eroded debris over rock. The is brown, the soil draining. The has a north-west , which lets it ripen slowly and get to optimal expression. This vineyard originally had 30% of its vines missing, and replacements were planted over eight years with local and cuttings of from the .

The other cuvées an called "1902" (not produced each and only in small quantities), a regular and a . A called "D'Autres Vallées" has also been produced a handful of . The the and both come from the Champagne , where sits atop and some stones are present.

Some other wines also join the fold through the De Moor's project Les Vendangeurs Masqués ("The Masked Harvester"). A is produced from sourced fruit that varies every and is not produced each year. A from fruit is produced annually. A suprisingly charming called "Caravan" has made numerous appearances, this time sourced from Gérald Oustric in the the . And in very bad years (the reason they began buying fruit in the first place), they have sourced grapes from friends all over the South of France; a truly all-star list including Eric Pfifferling, Domaine Gramenon, Eric Texier and Émile Hérédia.

The final and most recent additions come from the 2017 purchase of two of vineyards. Vau de Vey represents 0.92 of vines planted in 1953 on heavy that remind Olivier of the Rosette vineyard. The name is local dialect for "little valley". Their other of Mont de Milieu is 0.82 ; it is extremely steep and has to be worked by horse as it is too dangerous to use a tractor (hence why everyone else uses ). The site gets its name ("Mount of Middle") because it's on the border of . The vines at the bottom of the hill were planted in the 1980's and the middle and the top in the 1930's. in the old vines are very low and concentrated due to .

The De Moors have worked their vines since 2005, a rarity in their area. In 2002, they stopped using large bins and replaced them with small boxes where the grapes are not crushed by their own weight. In 2007, they built a large and high-ceilinged winery, allowing them to do all their work by . In 2008, they purchased a second-hand to treat the grapes in the gentlest way possible. There is no used at or during the . has traditionally been in of different ages for the wines, the and the , with wines and in and . Over the years this has evolved: 228 liter are still the most common , though and of various sizes have joined the fray along with and even a few .