Biodynamic. The Chenin Blanc vines of Clos Romans are rooted in the walled enclave of a priory dating back to the 11th century. The soil consists of a 30cm layer of sandy clay over Senonian-era limestone bedrock called Pierres de Champigny, the same rock that was used to build Château Champigny. Planted atop a ridge in Parnay, just outside Saumur, the vine roots burrow down through the limestone, towards the famous troglodyte dwellings below. Germain acquired this historic site in 2007 and has been steadily replanting at a density of 12,000 vines per hectare. He practices massale selection, mixing plants to ensure he doesn’t get a mono-dimensional profile of this terroir.
For the striking 2019, the grapes were hand-picked, whole-bunch pressed and then fermented in a neutral oval cask, where the wine rested for nine months on lees.
The resulting wine is a showstopper. As always, it’s a dramatically intense, crystalline and soaringly pure Chenin, with this year’s flavours running through clementine and blood orange, peach, roasted citrus and a note of camphor. The texture is sublime and the length exceptional, and the more air you give it the more depth and harmony you can expect. More than ever, one of the great whites of the region (if not France!), a super-mineral Corton-Charlemagne in the heart of the Loire. Worth every cent.