I wanted to see Chablis and I did see Chablis. I wanted to see the De Moor, I saw the De Moor, I wanted to see Pico, I saw Pico. We wanted sunshine and we got rain. Warm up, warm up! But a great time... as always!
Quick visit to Thomas Pico
We made an appointment to visit Alice and Olivier De Moor in Courgis. A small village of 250 inhabitants located south/southwest of the town of Chablis. By car for 3 hours. I arrived on Tuesday 18 April at about 11am in this typical Burgundian village and went first to the cellar of Winery Pattes Loup, run by Thomas Pico. Seen on the cellar of Winery Pattes Loup (Thomas Pico)
He is finishing a bottling of his Vin de France (2016). He stops for five minutes to give me a quick tour of the cellar and the basement ageing cellar. You can tell he is very nervous and preoccupied. In the course of the conversation, I learn that the nights ahead are going to be very cool, with a foreseeable frost on the vines. When you know what the Chablisians experienced in 2016, I can easily understand his concern. It is true that I was surprised by the cold when I got out of the car. 5 minutes later, we were tasting in 4th 5 minutes later, we taste a few bottles of 2015 opened in 4th gear and Thomas explains to me that he is trying to delay the sale of the 2015 as much as possible. His Vin de France in 2016 is a blend of organic grapes that he picked up all over southern France in September and October 2016. "Without that, I would have gone out of business, because between the investments, the 8 employees, and my father's retirement..." The concern is palpable. Then, without any transition, he tells me: "before, I didn't want to sell on the internet because I preferred physical wine shops, but now a lot of them also sell on the internet, so if you want some, I can sell you 18 bottles. 15 minutes after my arrival, I leave and tell him I'll come by on Wednesday morning to pick up the bottles rather than carrying them around in the car all day. "You can come from 7.30am, I'm bottling. I'll see you tomorrow, sorry, I don't have much time... ah ! and by the way, to have a bite to eat, you can try a new restaurant in Chablis : the Trois Bourgeons. It's just opened and is run by Japanese chefs.
Lunch in Chablis
Alice asked me to call her back early this afternoon. So I have a little time, a little more than I expected, even with the quick visit to Thomas' house... ☺ So I go to Mathilde's to get the keys of my room in the village to find the place and be quiet on this side. Direction Chablis under a beautiful sun and an icy wind. The restaurant is quickly found and I settle down in front of the kitchen on the bar facing the chef and his clerk. It will be the menu of the day 100% fish for me: sea bream tartar and cod with early vegetables. A quiet moment where I pity in silence all these people who travel, have lunch and dinner alone a good part of the week. Buh... I don't feel like it! 30 minutes later, coffee swallowed, bill paid, I take the road to Courgis by side roads. In this region, the vines are just beginning to show their leaves, the stony soils and the many treatments make it a lunar landscape. Alice will tell me later in the day that this is the least green period but that it is also the one that does not lie. You can see right away who is treating and who is not (almost everyone does ☹ ).Tour of the vineyards of Winery De Moor
I meet Alice at their place around 2.30 pm as agreed and we try to arrange a little "vineyard programme" while telling ourselves that the forecasted showers won't allow us to do everything. So off we go to the vineyards of Chitry! A small village just on the edge of the Chablis AOC, which did not want to join the Chablis side in order to continue working the other grape varieties: pinot noir and aligoté. As a result, we are in the Burgundy appellation and these are the vines that provide the grapes for the Bourgogne Aligoté and Bourgogne Chitry cuvées. Another parcel in the Chatillon area completes the Burgundies. We meet Olivier there, taking down the wires. The sun is back, we are sheltered from the wind, facing south on a fairly steep hillside. We're fine. In front of us, the forest. The discussion starts again on the next nights which will be decisive and stressful: frost or no frost. I feel behind their years of experience (more than 20 years) a desire to say we can't do anything, it's useless in advance, but there again the face is tense. And how can it not be? Alice and Olivier also produced nothing in 2016: frost then the terrible hail of May 2016. They also went shopping for organic grapes in the South with friends ... We leave again, small stop above the Village of Courgis (beautiful view). Alice tells me where is the hillside of Rosette (today with fences to fight against deer) then I ask her what are the large soft green fields that we see further. "An experiment with anti-hail nets, but we're going to go there because we've installed some too! ». And hop to these strange dark green nets! The principle is quite simple, the row of vines is isolated on each side (parallel) of a (very tight) net with very fine but openwork meshes. The hail falling on one side or the other bounces off the net. This is an experiment and therefore tolerated for the moment. To be continued, but the nets are planned for 10 years. At 15 000 € the installation, it is better! 
Departure in the direction of the village of Chablis on a small road at the exit of Courgis to visit the vineyard which offers us the famous vintage "Humeur du temps". This is a rather large plot of land which has recently been extended by taking over some vines (currently in conversion for 3 years).
Here we are again, on the other side of Chablis, heading towards the Grands Crus to see a Premier Cru vineyard that they have been renting since the end of 2016 from friends, who are unable to look after it at the moment. Around this plot and on these hillsides, candles are being installed in the middle of the vines. We have already been walking through their plots for almost two hours. Alice De Moor explains to me that between the vines they own, those they rent and those they treat for the trade, that makes a total of nearly 10 ha, with distances approaching 25 km from one end to the other... Finally we go back to their new acquisition at the end of 2016. Indeed, the SAFER has put up for sale 4 ha of premier crus (Vau-de-Vey, near the village of Beine). It is not a question of auctioning but of presenting a complete file. The De Moor's dossier was obviously convincing, with the support of their bank and the arrival of Romain, their eldest son (currently on an internship with JF Ganevat ), within the next 2 to 3 years. Alice and Olivier were able to acquire 92 ares (0.92 ha). The climb on these hillsides is impressive, a slope of... 55° approximately! How can one work such slopes? Apparently some people come here with tractors! Olivier prefers the caterpillar for the moment. It's amazing... I thought (1st) that I was going to go through it several times on the way back down. Alice, on the other hand, tells me that no, she wouldn't like to come here with a tractor, besides, she doesn't know how to drive them !
Tasting at the winery
Between 2 showers and because it is not possible to see everything (the Saint-Bris, Clardy, ...) we return to Courgis around 17:15 for the tasting of the blends and the grape varieties not yet assembled for the moment. Basically, the 2016 vintage of our friends Alice and Olivier De Moor will be in trade. After the terrible hailstorm of May 27th 2016 and the spring frosts... "the ant found itself very destitute when the time came for the harvest". Alice explains to me the logistics of being sick to make a total of 8 round trips in the South to buy grapes or sometimes juice: refrigerated truck, vans, tanker truck with sometimes last minute changes. In total, white grapes from friends (non-exhaustive list): Viognier from Michèle and Maxime Aubéry (Gramenon), Chardonnay and Viognier from Gérald Oulstric (Mazel), Clairette and Grenache Blanc (Emile Hérédia), Grenache Blanc and Bourboulenc (Eric Pfifferling), Roussanne (Eric Texier), etc. We are therefore starting to taste these grape varieties, using a pipette for at least twenty of them. Their ideas, make blends, marriages and find the right balance to give a touch of "De Moor": pep in the wine, freshness. It's a complicated exercise that will be played out in a while. For me, maybe the possibility to isolate a barrel and make a unique cuvée with grapes from a Winery from the South, vinified by Alice and Olivier... 2 hours later, and a small drop of Rosette 2015 (still in breeding), we go out in the open air, the ground is soggy, a shower has passed by. On the way out, my head is full of images from their grape buying trips to save their 2016 year. I have in my belly the pains and anxieties they have experienced and that they are likely to experience again, in the next 2 nights. I have in my head the generosity, for the time given, I have in my mouth the perfumes of these southern grape varieties vinified, raised like children.Dinner
No time to come back and have a "beauty check", we meet Olivier at their place. Alice checks her emails. Olivier comes back with tasting bottles of 2015. Alice is busy preparing a dinner, refusing to let us help her. We taste (drink, here) the old Aligoté 2015, Humeur du temps 2015, Clardys 2015, Saint-Bris 2015, then on the salad, a white saumur 2013 from Mélaric, on the plate, Olivier is all happy to open and drink a Fleurie Vieilles Vignes 2009 from Yvon Métras that I brought. They tell me that the last time they drank a bottle of Manu Houillon-Overnoy was the day of the hail (27 May 2016) so out of superstition, we won't open this other bottle brought by me. We have discussions about ecology, bio, the village emptying, the school closing and every 1/4h Olivier looks at the outside temperature, recalling facts, crossing temperature and time... The possible frost is on everyone's mind. Before leaving them, Alice reminds me that I have the end of the allowance to collect tomorrow morning. OK no problem, I'll be there at 8.15am at the winery. "If you hurry, you'll still have the light on in the street, at 11pm lights out in the village. A good night, many thanks and see you tomorrow.
A few minutes walk outside in the freezing cold, 11pm passes, the dark night falls. Here I am with the light on my phone to guide me to my bed. What a busy day. What beautiful people!
