Biodynamic. Marginale is Germain’s old-vine blend, drawn from parcels on the 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 (second to Les Mémoires) and lowest-yielding Cabernet Franc vines. Perhaps more than any other red, Marginale encapsulates the Germain style of profound elegance and soaring intensity that defines the wines of this estate today.
La Marginale is raised in a large 25-hectolitre foudre (that had to be erected in the Roches Neuves cellars by Franz Stockinger himself) for 12 months before finishing in three-year-old Burgundian barrels. Since 2013, Germain has employed a shorter maceration. The resulting wines have been even more balanced, with the kind of finesse and precision of fruit that is rarely found outside Burgundy.
The perfume here is dripping with supple cherry fruit, exotic spices and a savoury earthy undercurrent. As you would hope from a Marginale, it is seductively flavoured, with the tightly framed, fine-grained tannins, bright acidity and incredible, silky depth of fruit we expect of this unique place. Not too long ago, Josh Reynolds wrote that many of Germain’s Saumur-Champignys “taste more like Burgundy than a lot of pinot noirs on the market”. In this case, you can go straight to the Côte de Nuits!