Domaine des Roches Neuves, 2019 Saumur-Champigny “La Marginale”
The 6th generation in a long lineage of vignerons from Bordeaux, Thierry Germain came to the Loire in the early 1990s and purchased the existing estate Domaine des Roches Neuves in 1991, which at the time was owned by Denis Duveau, who decided to sell the domaine following the great frost of 1991 that wiped out his entire crop.
With a strong focus on biodynamic viticulture and great attention to detail in the cellar, Thierry has since led Domaine des Roches Neuves to become one of the Loire Valley's leading estates, earning the admiration and respect of vignerons across France and beyond. Today, Thierry and his son Louis are farming 28 hectares of vines, of which 26 hectares are Cabernet Franc, and they're making an elite range of Cabernet Francs, including 5 cuvées parcellaires, in which seek to communicate the terroir through the finished wine, and do so with remarkable clarity, energy and balance.
Dampierre-sur-Loire is one of the 6 communes in the appellation that hugs the banks of the Loire River and then stretches south into the centre of the appellation, and in the case of Dampierre-sur-Loire the commune runs about 3km from north to south and is around 2km from east to west. The topography of Dampierre-sur-Loire is quite varied, and the nature of the topography has exposed a diverse patchwork of soil textures and origins, making this commune one of the most complex in the appellation to define from terroir perspective.
There are two main areas in the commune where we see the influence of Turonian tuffeau chalk-dominated terroirs. Most notably in the north and northeastern where the commune borders Souzay-Champigny, as well as in the southwestern portion of the commune around the hamlet of Chaintre. The vineyards in these areas are at altitudes of around 45-60m, with a variety of exposures depending on where you area, with the Middle Turonian tuffeau chalk, the craie verte, being most common with the odd pocket of the Upper Turonian yellow tuffeau chalk. The topsoils here are generally more shallow, that is to say we're hitting the bedrock within less than 100cm of the surface, and with a silty clayey-sand texture.
In the centre and southern part of the commune, we find vineyards at a slightly higher elevation from around 60m to 85m, the soils date to the Senonian age and Eocene epoch. Compared to the areas where we find the Turonian tuffeau chalk, these terroirs are a bit more complex to define, with a wide variety of sands and/or clayey-sands mixed with flint or sandstone pebbles, and also areas of lacustrine limestone depending on where you are. The topsoil textures across these areas will vary, and generally these are much deeper soils. It's also worth noting that because of the undulating topography, we find vineyards with any number of different exposures.
While for many these details seem like minutiae, I mention them because these factors impact the vines access to water, potential for vigour, potential yield, the precocity of a given site, etc, which inevitably impacts the rate and degree of phenolic maturity in the grapes, and for estate's like Domaine des Roches Neuves, this inevitably influences how they approach the winemaking for a specific cuvée.
So this cuvée is coming from about 2 hectares of vines just west of the hamlet of Chaintres in the lieu-dit of Les Fosses de Chaintre, which makes up a larger, historcal sector of Les Dares which extends into Varrains. We're at an elevation of around 44m above sea level, and the parcels are oriented ever so slightly northwest. What really defines this cuvée, though, is the soils, and this also influences the approach to winemaking. And what we have here are rather deep, about 2 to 3 metres in fact, clay dominated soils, so the topsoil is a bit more of a clay-silt-sand mixed followed by a very clayey subsoil, and then the bedrock is the Middle Turonian tuffeau, the craie verte, which is a glaucontic-micaceous chalk. The vines are on average around 45 years of age.
And this is one of the historical cuvées of the domaine and was first created by the previous owner of the domaine Denis Duveau in 1989. Denis wanted to make a wine that emulated Bordeaux, with a focus on higher maturities and alcohols, a more active approach to extractions, longer macerations, and long élevage in 100% new oak. This cuvée was intended to challenge the then perceptions of wines of Saumur-Champigny, which at the time were considered "not serious", that is for the most part, early-drinking, fruity wines, and was so named "La Marginale" by Denis's friend Charly Foucault of Clos Rougeard.
When Thierry took over the domaine with the 1992 vintage, he continued to make the cuvée in a very similar way as Denis did, and as he matured as a vigneron and gained a better understanding of his vines and soils, his approach with the cuvée slowly evolved, most notably with the élevage. He began to dial back on the new oak in 2002, and by the 2005 vintage, he was no longer using new oak. The size of barrel for the élevage has also evolved over time, getting progressively larger, with mainly 300L and 500L barrels used in the beginning to larger foudres now.
So the winemaking today begins with hand-harvested fruit that is sorted twice, once in the vineyard and once in the cellar, and all the fruit is destemmed and not crushed. Fermentation is in large wooden vats with indigenous yeast, and they strive to keep the fermentation temperature around 20 to 25C. The approach to extractions is infusion, with a light wetting of the cap periodically. The total time on skins is around 18 to 20 days. No press wine is used in the finished cuvée, and the free run wine is aged in 25hl oak foudres for around 12 months, with the objective of preserving the fruit and sense of roundness provided by the clay in the finished cuvée.
Key wine facts below:
Producer: Domaines des Roches Neuves (Thierry & Louis Germain)
Appellation: Saumur-Champigny
Commune: Dampierre-sur-Loire
Lieu-Dit: Les Fosses de Chaintre
Soil: upwards to 3m of clayey soils (topsoil and subsoil), over the Middle Turonian tuffeau chalk (craie verte)
Alcohol: 13.5%
