2013 Saumur Champigny Les Memoires, Domaine des Roches Neuves

"Much of the finest Cabernet Franc from Saumur-Champigny is now being made by Thierry Germain at Domaine des Roches Neuves. After growing up at his family’s Château Yon-Figeac, in Saint-Émilion, Germain arrived in Loire from Bordeaux in 1991. He immediately became a leader in organic viticulture. By 1998, he was farming organically, and by 2002 he had the first certified biodynamic vineyards in Saumur-Champigny. (Today, a third of the vineyards in the appellation are organic.) Germain suggested that his farming has transcended science at this point: “Three years ago, I stopped all analysis, because it takes out all my emotion.” Currently, the estate is 28 hectares, with red wine making up about 85% of the 120,000 bottles annually produced. “Cabernet Franc is a rustic variety,” Germain says. “It’s vegetal, it’s volatile and it’s important to work around that. For me, Cabernet Franc, over 14% it loses all freshness and typicity. After 14% you lose the terroir.” The elegance, precision and purity of Germain’s Cabernet Franc are something else entirely, almost Burgundian."  Jason Wilson, Vinous.com, July 2020