Biodynamic. The fruit for this delicious sparkling comes from a range of biodynamic parcels in Saumur alongside a vineyard in Le Puy-Notre-Dame (an appellation only for red wines). It's a blend of 90% Chenin Blanc, with the remainder split between Cabernet Franc and Chardonnay. Germain picks quite late for sparkling—when ripe and full of character—then presses as whole bunches and ferments in a mix of stainless steel and barrels formerly used for the Insolite cuvée. The wine then ages in bottle on lees for around 18 months before disgorgement with no additions. It’s a Saumur méthode traditionnelle à la Germain. '

Sparkling Saumur is the original sparkling of the Loire Valley―dating back to the 1830s―and Germain’s wine has the character, deliciousness and class to leave a great many Champagnes in the shade. Expect a layered, super-mineral, chalky white with a salty, bone-dry finish. A joy to drink, with texture and length to back it up.

Organic. Over the years, this iconic white has emerged as one of the Loire Valley's most exciting Chenin Blancs. Fruit for l'Insolite traditionally comes from two densely planted vineyards on clay and limestone soils riddled with sandstone and flint. The oldest vines are 90 years old. These lieux-dits—Les Cerpes and Saint-Vincent—lie close to the town of Saumur. In recent years, the wine has included fruit from several other plots dotted around the commune.

Germain slowly presses the bunches before the juice ferments naturally in 1,200-litre Stockinger ovals and 600-litre casks (ex-Alphonse Mellot). The wine rests on fine lees for another 12 months, slowly building texture before bottling. Germain thinks of this wine as the Loire's answer to German Riesling, hence the name, which means 'unusual'. It’s another wonderful release, rippling with fleshy stone fruit texture, citrus pith, smoky minerality and a food-friendly phenolic bite. The finish is vinous and sappy with a punchy, taut, gently powdery structure and salty mineral close—the hallmark of this iconic wine. 

Biodynamic. 100% Cabernet Franc. Germain’s calling card is drawn from the domaine’s many parcels in Saumur. These varied sites grow on tuffeau/limestone soils around the communes of Varrains, Chaintres, Dampierre and Saumur. The vines range from 10 to 70 years old (with the average at around 30) and include the domaine’s ‘home’ vineyard, Le Clos, a site ploughed by the family’s Ardennais draft horse. Germain harvests by hand, employs cold soak infusion for some parcels and carries out the wild yeast fermentation and maturation mostly in tank. Aside from a minor 10 ppm SO2 at bottling, the wine sees no additions. Packed with youthful Saumur joie de vivre, this is a pure, elegantly floral red with perfumed dark cherry, anise and graphite notes and a juicy, supple, mouthwatering personality that pairs beautifully with cheese, paté, pork chops and roast chicken. In other words, the perfect bistro wine (that goes with every course)! The colour of the label this year is a kind of bluish slate. 

Biodynamic. Roches Neuves would surely claim several Grand Cru sites if Saumur were drawn up along Burgundy lines. One of these would be Clos de l’Échelier, a beautiful, ancient two-hectare vineyard surrounded by a wall built 300 years ago. It’s a magical site. Thierry explains that he had his eye on this limestone-rich clos from the moment he arrived in the region over 20 years ago. He was finally able to purchase it in 2012. It lies in Dampierre-sur-Loire atop the sheer limestone cliffs that skirt this section of the Loire River. Much of the site is planted to Cabernet Franc, though Germain has been planting more Chenin to add to its 0.4 hectares of 60-year-old vines. The soils are sandy and shallow, with just a 30cm layer of argilo-calcaire over pure Turonian limestone.

The combination of site, meagre yields and Germain's precise biodynamic farming results in a wine of compact stone fruit and citrus peel entwined with old-vine power, rocky structure and a penetrating saline finish. If there were any doubt that Saumur is home to one of France's most singular white wine terroirs, a bottle of l’Échelier would end the conversation. 

Biodynamic. This tiny vineyard also deserves status as one of Saumur’s Grand Crus, and it’s certainly the most enchanting of Germain’s sites to visit. The Chenin vines are rooted in the walled enclave of a priory dating back to the 11th century. Planted on the limestone ridge above Parnay just outside Saumur, the roots burrow down through the white rock (Senonian-era bedrock called Pierres de Champigny) towards the famous Maisons Troglodytes below. Germain acquired this historic site in 2007 and has steadily replanted at a density of 12,000 vines per hectare. It’s one of the many Germain vineyards ploughed under the direction of Thierry’s daughter, Jeanne.

Raised in large-format neutral oak and bottled without filtration after nine months on lees, this is a wine of outstanding purity that seamlessly balances the chiselled depth of Germain’s densely planted, low-yielding fruit with the uplifting lightness of France’s greatest whites (aérien, as the French might say). This is one of the great white wines of the Loire. To give you an idea of just how good this wine is, Germain does a bottle-for-bottle contra deal with the Puligny Grand Cru of a highly respected Côte de Beaune domaine (no names!). It’s enough to say we’re not sure who gets the better deal!

Biodynamic. First made in 2008, this rare, own-rooted wine comes from two tiny parcels of Cabernet Franc planted in sandy plots close to the river. These sites were established using 2,000 mass-selection cuttings from Bernard Baudry’s Franc de Pied vines. The vines are single stake (échalas style) and planted to a density of 10,000 vines per hectare. The deep sandy soils are worked by horse. All this results in the domaine’s lowest yields—although Germain notes that these vines deliver his lowest-alcohol red (12.3% in 2022).

Raised for 12 months in older 12-hectolitre casks, this cuvée is the only Germain red fermented with bunches (30% this year), which helps deliver an entirely different texture and tannin profile from the other wines. It’s never easy to calculate the impact of the ungrafted vines versus the terroir and vintage, but Franc de Pied is Germain’s most ethereal wine in 2022. Seductive and vivid, like putting your nose to a glass full of rose petals, it shines with layers of pure, lifted black raspberry shrouded in fine, velour-soft tannins alongside the moreish savoury/woodland undertow familiar to those who know this wine. Magic, as the grower himself is fond of saying. Decant, serve in a Burgundy glass and enjoy the ride. 

Biodynamic. La Marginale is drawn from parcels on the clay-limestone soils of Fossés de Chaintre (the lieux-dits of Les Dares and Clos Maurice) and from a small parcel of old vines on Turonian limestone in the famous Les Poyeux. It's made from some of the estate’s oldest Cabernet Franc vines. Perhaps more than any other red, La Marginale encapsulates the Germain style of elegance and soaring intensity. La Marginale is raised in a 25-hectolitre foudre and matures for 12 months before finishing in three-year-old Burgundy barrels. Since 2013, Germain has employed shorter macerations with just one or two punchdowns to let the wine infuse. As a result, the wines have even more balance, with the kind of finesse and precision rarely found in reds of the Loire.

The nose offers a captivating cocktail of rose, graphite and star anise—scents which seamlessly flow onto a layered palate that lingers beautifully. It’s the most compact and deep wine so far. Not too long ago, the late Josh Raynolds wrote that many of Germain’s Saumur-Champigny’s “taste more like Burgundy than a lot of Pinot Noirs on the market.”

Biodynamic. Previously a blend of two terroirs, Terres Chaudes now hails exclusively from the Poyeux terroir in Chaintres, near the heart of the appellation (an area made famous by the Clos Rougeard bottling). The vines for this cuvée are about 50 years old on average and come from the slope, where the topsoil is very shallow before the roots hit the limestone bedrock. All the fruit is destemmed and ferments in cement (with some foot stomping), followed by maturation in 60-hectolitre, neutral wooden vats. Although it’s a refined and silky wine, you can't miss the powerful imprint of Poyeux’s ripe berry, spice and mineral-charged fruit. Look out for fresh plum, iodine, cinnamon/pepper notes and a texture that dances between juicy seduction and tangy, powdery limestone-derived freshness. Just a wonderful, character-rich French red for the dollars. Expect it to blossom in three or so years.