Alice & Olivier De Moor Le Vendangeur Masqué Bourgogne Chardonnay 2024
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The Land
This is a Chablis grower's Chardonnay that never saw Chablis. For the 2024 Vendangeur Masqué Bourgogne, Alice and Olivier De Moor bought organically farmed Chardonnay from a friend in the Mâconnais, at the southern end of Burgundy. The source changes from year to year, and the wine is not made every vintage. The Mâconnais is warmer and sunnier than the Yonne, rolling hills of limestone and clay where Chardonnay ripens more readily than around Courgis. In 2024 that southern position mattered. Chablis took about 15 minutes of violent hail on May 1 that cost some vineyards up to 90 percent of their potential crop, while the white appellations of southern Burgundy were hit less severely than those to the north.
The Wine
Alice & Olivier De Moor Le Vendangeur Masqué Bourgogne Chardonnay 2024 is 100 percent Chardonnay, destemmed and gently pressed, then fermented spontaneously. It completes malolactic and ages on its lees in foudre without bâtonnage before bottling unfiltered. Large wood lets the wine breathe without stamping it with oak, and skipping lees stirring keeps the texture fine instead of fat. Expect ripe lemon, yellow apple, and white flowers, a round middle with a chalky, saline streak, and a citrus-pith finish. Earlier editions, from different sources, have been full and round with a saline core reminiscent of good Chablis. The 2024 Burgundy season was relentlessly wet, with mildew arriving early, but a dry August and north winds dried out the surviving berries. Mâconnais picking started about a week before the Côte de Beaune's mid-September start, and alcohol levels ran roughly one degree lower than in 2023.
The People
Alice and Olivier De Moor both trained as enologists at the wine school in Dijon, and they met working at a large Chablis estate where Olivier ran the vineyards. Olivier grew up in Courgis, about 7 kilometers southwest of Chablis; Alice comes from the Jura. They share decisions, with Olivier mostly in the vines and Alice mostly in the cellar and office. Le Vendangeur Masqué, the masked harvester, is their négoce label for wines made from bought fruit or rented vines, and its fixed rule is that they buy only organic grapes. That makes this bottle a different thing from their estate Chablis: it shows what two of the Yonne's leading natural winemakers do with Chardonnay from a friend's hillside, under the same unhurried cellar regime.
Food Pairing
Pan-seared scallops with brown butter and capers work because the acidity slices through the browned butter while the saline streak picks up the capers. Warm gougères made with aged Comté, a nod to Alice's Jura roots, match the wine's round middle. Chicken thighs braised in cream with morels or cremini let the lees texture meet the sauce, and a simple croque monsieur with good ham and béchamel is a fine Sunday lunch here. This is the white to pour when you want Burgundy at the table without making a ceremony of it.
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Burgundy, in eastern France, encompasses several subregions, but it is the Côte d'Or that is home to many of the world's most expensive and revered wines. The region, primarily a single east-facing slope, has mixed limestone soils that vary dramatically from village to village and even vineyard to vineyard. White wines, crafted from Chardonnay, range from rich and opulent to lean and intensely mineral, while Pinot Noir produces silky, perfumed red wines of exceptional finesse and complexity. Centuries of winemaking tradition have resulted in every plot being meticulously recognized and scrutinized, making the Côte d'Or a true capital of terroir.
Burgundy - Cote d'Or
Chardonnay, one of the world's most versatile and beloved white grape varieties, showcases a remarkable spectrum of styles, from the lean, mineral-driven expressions of Chablis in France to the rich, buttery, and oak-aged versions from California's Napa Valley. Its adaptability extends to cooler climates such as Burgundy, where it achieves elegance and complexity, and to regions like Australia's Yarra Valley, known for producing vibrant and fruit-forward renditions. This grape's ability to reflect its terroir, coupled with winemaking techniques, results in a wide array of profiles, including unoaked, crisp varieties with apple and citrus notes, to full-bodied wines with tropical fruit flavors and creamy textures.
