2018 Saumur-Champigny, Les Mémoires, Domaine des Roches Neuves, Thierry Germain, Loire

2018 Saumur-Champigny, Les Mémoires, Domaine des Roches Neuves, Thierry Germain, Loire

Product: 20188204914
The Wine Advocate94/100
Vinous94/100
Prices start from £38.68 per bottle (75cl). Buying options
2018 Saumur-Champigny, Les Mémoires, Domaine des Roches Neuves, Thierry Germain, Loire

Description

The 2018 Saumur Champigny Les Mémoires is deep, bloody and spicy on the nose, with intense but tart fruit aromas of dark berries, tobacco and leather. Still fine but for now more brutish than the highly elegant 2019. On the palate, this is a smooth, refined and elegant, vital and refreshing Cabernet from 114-year-old vines. It is remarkably finessed but still a bit astringent and animally on the finish. I am also pretty sure that this 2018 will emerge as a great Loire red wine one day. The finish, with all its vitality, citrus freshness and silex nerviness, is superb and haughty, as is the perfectly ripe fruit and the silky tannins. Tasted in June 2021.

Drink 2024 - 2045

Stephan Reinhardt, Wine Advocate (Oct 2021)

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Bottle (75cl)
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Critics reviews
The Wine Advocate94/100
Vinous94/100
The Wine Advocate94/100
The 2018 Saumur Champigny Les Mémoires is deep, bloody and spicy on the nose, with intense but tart fruit aromas of dark berries, tobacco and leather. Still fine but for now more brutish than the highly elegant 2019. On the palate, this is a smooth, refined and elegant, vital and refreshing Cabernet from 114-year-old vines. It is remarkably finessed but still a bit astringent and animally on the finish. I am also pretty sure that this 2018 will emerge as a great Loire red wine one day. The finish, with all its vitality, citrus freshness and silex nerviness, is superb and haughty, as is the perfectly ripe fruit and the silky tannins. Tasted in June 2021.

Drink 2024 - 2045

Stephan Reinhardt, Wine Advocate (Oct 2021) Read more
Vinous94/100
From some of the oldest Cabernet Franc vines in France , planted in 1904 on silex soil. Aged in 2,500-liter foudre for 12 months. Richer, more generous and more open, a Loire Cabernet Franc that’s perhaps easier for newbies to understand and love. There’s more fruit here – aromas and flavors of blackberry, black cherry and plum - plus streaky, chalky tannins from midpalate to finish. This might be where I would point a Barolo or Brunello drinker who’s exploring Loire.

Drink 2022 - 2045

Jason Wilson, vinous.com (Jul 2020) Read more

About this WINE
Domaine des Roches Neuves

Domaine des Roches Neuves

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Saumur-Champigny

Saumur-Champigny

Saumur-Champigny is an Anjou-Saumur appellation noted for the uncomplicated, fruit-forward character of its Cabernet Franc red wines grown on the sand over chalky tuffeau soils. The wines are aged predominantly in old oak or inert vessels to give a good-value, early-drinking style. Château du Hureau is a consistently good source.

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Cab.Franc

Cab.Franc

Cabernet Franc is widely planted in Bordeaux and is the most important black grape grown in the Loire. In the Médoc it may constitute up to 15% of a typical vineyard - it is always blended with Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot and is used to add bouquet and complexity to the wines. It is more widely used in St.Emilion where it adapts well to the cooler and moister clay soils - Cheval Blanc is the most famous Cabernet Franc wine in the world, with the final blend consisting of up to 65% of the grape.

Cabernet Franc thrives in the Loire where the cooler growing conditions serve to accentuate the grape's herbaceous, grassy, lead pencil aromas. The best wines come from the tuffeaux limestone slopes of Chinon and Bourgeil where growers such as Jacky Blot produce intense well-structured wines that possess excellent cellaring potential.

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