Domaine Thierry Germain / Roches Neuves

The Free Bacchus Story

Thierry Germain is the sixth generation of a Bordeaux wine family and he left in 1991. He and Marie Germain bought a Saumur property founded in 1850 by the Duveau family — trading the most valuable wine region in France for one that has never carried grand cru pricing.

What he found there was Charly Foucault of Clos Rougeard, the domaine that had spent years demonstrating that Cabernet Franc in Saumur-Champigny could be treated as a serious wine rather than a regional one. Germain calls Foucault his spiritual father. The influence shows less in style than in refusal: no shortcuts to weight, no correction in the cellar.

The cuvées are divided by soil — sand, limestone, flint — rather than assembled into one blend. On a domaine this size that means picking separately, fermenting separately and bottling smaller lots, which is a real cost carried for the sake of a distinction most buyers will never see itemised.

The farming went organic soon after he arrived and biodynamic in 2003. Certification is Demeter, with Biodyvin membership, and it covers the whole domaine rather than a flagship parcel.

The wine costs around thirty-five dollars. That is a certified biodynamic domaine at the top of its appellation, priced by an appellation that has never been fashionable — the farming has nothing to do with why it is cheap.