Description
Thierry Germain made the move away from the Gironde to the Loire Valley in 1991, taking possession of Domaine des Roches Neuves in Varrains, just on the outskirts of Saumur. The vineyard is worked in a natural way -3 horses help- with the goal of keeping the vine and the soil at its healthiest and is fully biodynamic since the 2005 vintage. The harvest is manual, selecting grapes at their very ripest level. Vinification is handled in small batches then bottling unfined and unfiltered. Germain has garnered praise in the European press for his exciting wines, which are always filled with ripe, generous fruit and supple textures.
Tasting Notes
The 2016 Saumur Champigny Les Mémoires is from a vineyard planted in 1904 on limestone with silex stones at 100 meters in altitude. Pure, precise and concentrated, with very fine fruit aromas on the nose, this is a dense, intensely fruity and warm-hearted, highly elegant, complex and generous Cabernet Franc with silky tannins and a very long and aromatic finish. This is Thierry’s most noble and aristocratic wine. The finish is crunchy, fresh and really stimulating in its salivating salinity. “You find the fire and the sharpness here,“ says Thierry. [94 Points, Stephan Reinhardt – October 2021, robertparker.com]
