Domaine des Roches Neuves, 2020 Saumur-Champigny “Franc de Pied”
Cab Franc du Jour #120
Thierry Germain of Domaine des Roches Neuves is one of the elite vignerons of Saumur-Champigny. Biodynamically farming 28 hectares of vines, of which about 26 hectares are planted with Cabernet Franc, Thierry brings a meticulous and deeply attentive approach to both vineyard and cellar. Spend any time with him and you get the sense that he knows each individual vine at the domaine with genuine intimacy.
In addition to his domaine wine and the cuvée Roche, both blends from multiple parcels, the domaine produces several cuvées parcellaires, each intended to communicate a specific terroir through the finished wine. Today’s wine is one of the most singular in the entire range: the Franc de Pied, sourced from a tiny plot of ungrafted Cabernet Franc vines, an extreme rarity in the Loire Valley. It also holds a personal significance as the first Roches Neuves wine I ever tasted, likely back in 2015 or 2016. Having covered this cuvée in the very early days of Cab Franc Chronicles, and with my understanding of the appellation, its terroirs, Thierry’s approach, and Cabernet Franc in general having grown considerably since then, it felt well worth revisiting in greater depth.
The Commune of Saumur
The Franc de Pied comes from a tiny parcel in the commune of Saumur, the westernmost of the six communes that hug the banks of the Loire in the Saumur-Champigny appellation. While it is the largest commune by area, stretching about 7km from north to south on both sides of the Loire and roughly 9.5km from east to west on the south bank, the actual viticultural area is quite limited, with the town of Saumur itself occupying much of the commune.
Around 75% of the vineyards are clustered in a small area in the far eastern part of the commune, east of the town and stretching just over a kilometre to the border of Dampierre-sur-Loire. These vineyards sit at elevations of around 68 to 85m above sea level, and the topography here is largely flat.
In terms of soils, with the exception of a small area in the northeastern corner where Turonian tuffeau chalk appears, almost all of the vineyards in the eastern part of the commune, and indeed across the rest of the Saumur commune as well, sit on soils dating to the Senonian age and the Eocene epoch, specifically the Bartonian and Lutetian ages. These are mostly sandy-clays and clayey-sands with varying amounts of sandstone, quartz, and flint pebbles, and some parcels carry more of the influence of lacustrine limestone. Depths and textures vary considerably from lieu-dit to lieu-dit and from parcel to parcel.
The Vineyard
The Franc de Pied comes from a tiny 0.2-hectare parcel of ungrafted vines, Cabernet Franc growing on its own roots. For vitis vinifera to survive on its own roots in Europe without succumbing to phylloxera, the soils must be very deep and very sandy, and that is precisely what this block provides. The soils are Senonian-era sands mixed with flint and sandstone pebbles, with approximately 6m of pure sand in which the vines are planted - and having walked this block with Thierry in 2022, I can attest to how remarkably sandy the soils were underfoot, it was almost like walking on a beach. The vines were established in 2004 at a high density of 10,000 vines per hectare, and they are trained using the échalas system of individually staked vines, a method more commonly associated with steep slopes in the Rhône or the Mosel. When asked about this choice, Thierry simply said that he has always loved northern Rhône Syrah, and the training system is his nod to that region.
In the Cellar
A key element to note is that Thierry ferments the Franc de Pied with a significant proportion of whole cluster. In the 2020 vintage, 90% of the fruit was fermented whole cluster in oval vats with indigenous yeast at a low temperature of around 16 to 22C. The intention is to capture aromas without extracting bitter tannins. Total skin contact runs approximately 8 to 10 days, and the wine is then aged in foudre for around 12 months before bottling.
Wine Details
Producer: Domaine des Roches Neuves (Thierry Germain)
Appellation: Saumur-Champigny
Commune: Saumur
Lieux-Dits: Les Pentes
Soils: 6m of Senonian-era sand with flint and sandstone pebbles
Alcohol: 13.5%