Owner and winemaker Thierry Germain is one of the most respected producers in the Loire Valley and is an avowed practitioner of biodynamic viticulture where from his estate near the town of Saumur he makes some of the most highly regarded red and white wines in the region. This Saumur Champigny red is his domaine cuvée and represents incredible quality and value for money, retailing in the UK for only circa £20 per bottle.

Harvesting at the domaine is all manual and vinification is done in small batches with optimally ripe grapes which leads to wines with plump and generous Cabernet Franc fruit flavours. Wines are bottled unfiltered and unfined. His painstaking attention to detail and quality has earned Thierry an enviable reputation around the world especially with Chenin Blanc and Cabernet Franc obsessives.

Thierry Germain Domaine des Roches Neuves Saumur Champigny 2019, 13.5% Abv.

The 2019 Saumur Champigny from Thierry Germain is such an exciting, beguiling wine. While I tasted this new release knowing relatively little about the Loire vintage conditions in that year, the wine has succeeded in bowling me over like a full length yorker pitched on middle stump. A beautifully dark dense purple colour, the 2019 offers up expressive notes of pure crushed black berry fruits, a most elegantly refreshing and fragrant bouquet of black cherries, black tea, charcoal embers, boxwood, blue berries and a subtle leafy sweet Chinese five spice complexity. On the palate the wine is moderately dense, medium bodied but supremely cool and creamy with a fleshy texture, tart black currant fruits, generous mouth watering acids and a long, slightly stony mineral finish that has just the right amount of leafy, brambly, herbal sappy spice to combine with the suave graphite tannins. A wine with a lot of personality that will undoubtedly leave a lasting impression on the drinker. Drink now and over the next 6-8+ years.

(Wine Safari Score: 94/100 Greg Sherwood MW)