{"product_id":"franck-bimont-cabernet-franc-saumur-puy-notre-dame-loire-valley-fr-2023","title":"Franck Bimont - Cabernet Franc - Saumur-Puy-Notre-Dame, Loire Valley, FR - 2023","description":"\u003ch2\u003eSatellite's Hot Take\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eA pitch-perfect classic from Franck Bimont - a legend in Saumur and a translator of the finest style from this spectacular region\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eNotes from the Winery\/Importer\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eFranck approaches his Saumur Rouge with a clear aim to minimize vegetal character, with grapes harvested in the sweet spot between full maturity and sustained tension. It’s labeled as a Saumur appellation wine, but all the fruit is grown within Puy-Notre-Dame. The 2023 is a straightforward wine—no cellar tricks, just terroir, soft handling, and classically styled. It’s more red-fruited than expected, but with a touch of riper fruit. What I like most about it is its directness. It’s also not a green Cabernet Franc, which may make it easier for modern wine drinkers who often prefer fruitier wines without any green elements to appreciate. The palate is smooth, the tannins soft, and the wine carries a wide range of textures and aromas without becoming heavy. The balance and universal appeal suggest its many climat spread across almost every type of soil in the area.\n\n\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn the cellar, the fruit is destemmed and macerated for eight to 15 days, with tanks kept under CO₂ from harvest until the start of alcoholic fermentation. Pressing occurs during fermentation, after which the wine is returned to tank to complete the fermentation of remaining sugars. Malolactic fermentation follows without racking, and the wines remain on their full lees for six to nine months before being racked and blended in the spring. Before bottling, around 2 g\/hL of SO₂ is added, and bottling is carried out with cellulose filtration and a final SO₂ adjustment.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch2\u003eNotes on the Producer\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eShort Summary\nFrom a twelfth-generation family of winegrowers in Saumur, Franck Bimont took over his family's Puy-Notre-Dame-based domaine after the passing of his father in 1989. Trained as an oenologist in Montreuil-Bellay and Bordeaux-Blanquefort, he has known no other profession, having begun work in the vineyards at just 13 years old under his grandfather's guidance. Farming 19 hectares across both owned and leased parcels with a small team of four, his approach centers first on being a farmer: protecting biodiversity, preserving soil structure through shallow plowing, and working organically with careful, targeted treatments. In the cellar, his wines lean toward honesty and typicity, guided by native fermentations, restrained élevage, and decisions rooted as much in tasting as in analysis. At its core, Franck aims to craft wines for pleasure and sharing, where terroir, climate, and human touch combine each year to create something new with each vintage, while ​c​onserving a clear link to his ancestral past and that of the region.\nFull Length Story\nLe Puy-Notre-Dame gives me the same feeling I had on my first visit to Brézé in 2010. Its soft vineyard slopes, quiet roads, modest rises in elevation, and fields stretching into the distance without being broken up by cliffside walls or rocks protruding from steep hillsides, as in places like Portugal’s northeastern winescape. It feels calm, even boring, which is what makes these places so deceptive.\n\n\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOne of the most enlightening discussions about geology more than a decade ago, with now well-known wine-focused geologist Brenna Quigley, who was on a tour with me through the Loire Valley, was with the Touraine-based, PhD geologist, Charles Pomerol. Charles researched and wrote with a team of geology researchers, “The Wines and Winelands of France.” We talked about many things, but I left with what seemed to be some big-fish stories, like the Loire River used to flow through what is Paris today, virtually the entire country of France tilting to the west during the Alpine Orogeny, and the different colors of tuffeau around Saumur and other appellations further east that have this same mother rock, like Bourgueil, Chinon, Vouvray and Montlouis. I decided to circle back to our conversation while writing this piece, to dig a bit deeper on that last topic. As expected, the situation is far more than my binary mind wants it to be. (Those of us in the wine industry love hard truths and binary options.)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSome of the greatest wine hills are not necessarily the most visually dramatic. Burgundy teaches us this. And in Saumur, Brézé reminds us of this. If you’ve not had a wine from the hill, with the first look at it, you’d wonder what all the fuss could possibly be about. But standing on that butte, the feet stand on one of the most geologically heterogeneous and complicated little worlds in the Loire Valley. Le Puy-Notre-Dame shares this complexity.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWithin a radius of only a few kilometers around the hilltop center of Le Puy-Notre-Dame, the geology is complex. The hill rises modestly above the surrounding landscape, and at just over 100 meters in altitude, it’s one of the highest points in the greater Saumur area. However, the altitude itself isn’t important; it’s that those meters that rise above a certain level lie on geology perfectly suited to wine, left intact after millions of years of flooding. Like all hills that rise in this appellation, above this floodplain sits a geological time capsule where ancient marine worlds overlap in tight proximity.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAerial view of Le Puy-Notre-Dame, Saumur, Loire Valley\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBeing Franck\u003cbr\u003eFrom a twelfth-generation family of winegrowers in Saumur, Franck Bimont carries forward a long lineage, one that has passed from father to son for generations and settled deeply into the rhythm of the land and Franck’s work. His path into wine was not a search but a continuation, though it sharpened into focus when his father passed in 1989, a moment that marked a turning point and set him firmly on his course. Since he was 13, he’d already worked the vineyards alongside his grandfather. They became close, and his grandfather remains his most important influence. His formal training followed in Montreuil-Bellay, just ten minutes away, and later in Bordeaux-Blanquefort, where he completed agricultural and oenological studies, earning his qualification as an oenologist. By 1992, he completed his first vinification at the domaine, beginning the work that continues today. Franck has known no other profession.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFranck Bimont in the vineyard, Le Puy-Notre-Dame\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFranck’s wines mirror the openness of his hospitable personality, rooted in the idea that wine should be a source of pleasure and sharing, bringing happiness to those who drink it. They also follow his personal preference for wines with tension and terroir-clarity. For him, wine remains above all the expression of terroir, something that gives birth each year to a new result while remaining tied to its origins.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe Times, They Are A Changin’\u003cbr\u003eClimate change has reshaped the rhythm of Franck’s work over the past 40 years. He explained that budbreak and harvest now occur approximately one month earlier than they did one or two decades ago, leading to more homogeneous and riper harvests. The shift has been particularly beneficial for red wines, which now reach levels of ripeness he considers far more interesting than in the past. At the same time, maintaining freshness and acidity has become more difficult in certain years, particularly with Chenin Blanc, and vineyard and cellar practices must be adapted accordingly. Franck notes that winemaking techniques will need to continue to evolve, with a closer watch over the grapes as they ripen and the wines as they move through élevage.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe recent vintages reflect both the opportunities and challenges of this evolving climate. The 2022 vintage offered excellent conditions for Cabernet Franc, with both ripeness and harvest quality aligning well. In 2023, the season was warm and generous, though it required vigilant sorting during harvest. Marked by cold, rain, and challenges in achieving ripeness, the 2024 vintage proved more difficult. By contrast, 2025 was warm and early, with little rainfall and near-perfect sanitary conditions—seemingly, just like the rest of France; it’s safe to say that we can all be excited about 2025 French red wines.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePhilosophy\u003cbr\u003eA long-time organic practitioner, Franck runs a team of four over 19 hectares owned and leased. He describes himself first as a farmer, and his philosophy reflects this grounding as he works to protect biodiversity, preserve terroir, and avoid excessive competition in the vineyard so the vines can produce in a healthy, balanced way. The soils are worked carefully. Ploughing is carried out from spring to early summer in three passes per year—March, May, and July—always with attention to depth, never going too far, to maintain soil structure and life. Annual treatments in the vineyard average around eight, though they can range from six to twelve depending on conditions. There are fewer than in the past, and they’re also more targeted. 60% of plant material comes from clones and 40% from massal selection, a notable contrast to the broader Saumur region, where Franck estimates that massal selection amounts to only about 10% of plantings.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHarvest decisions are guided by both analysis and experience, but ultimately through tasting the berries. In the cellar, his work follows a similar logic of clarity and restraint, focused on preserving the typicity of regional wine and producing honest, straightforward expressions that respect their origin.\u003cbr\u003e-Ted Vance - The Source Imports\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eGrapes \u0026amp; Style\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003ch3\u003eCabernet Franc\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eCabernet Franc is an old Bordeaux and Loire red grape, and one of the parents of Cabernet Sauvignon. In Bordeaux it’s often part of a blend, bringing lift, perfume, and freshness; in the Loire, especially Chinon, Bourgueil, Saumur-Champigny, and Anjou, it stands on its own as one of the great medium-bodied red wines of France.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn the vineyard, Cabernet Franc ripens earlier than Cabernet Sauvignon, which helps it succeed in cooler regions. It still needs enough warmth to avoid hard green flavors, but when farmed well it can keep freshness while developing real aromatic complexity. It often works beautifully on limestone, gravel, and sandy soils, with style shifting depending on site.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn the glass, Cabernet Franc usually sits in a lovely middle zone: red and black fruit, fresh herbs, violet, graphite, pepper, and sometimes a subtle leafy edge. It can be light and crunchy or deeper and more structured, but it rarely needs heaviness to make its point. We like it for the way it combines freshness, savory detail, and quiet confidence.\u003c\/p\u003e\n","brand":"Satellite SB","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49278062952699,"sku":"00078200","price":52.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0403\/3655\/6193\/files\/60cbb30da4a13b5c6615b57f4a4c84ca.png?v=1788815791","url":"https:\/\/satellitesb.com\/products\/franck-bimont-cabernet-franc-saumur-puy-notre-dame-loire-valley-fr-2023","provider":"Satellite SB","version":"1.0","type":"link"}