Clos Rougeard - Les Poyeux 2014
Clos Rougeard is a renowed wine estate based close to the village of Chacé, in Saumur-Champigny. The estate was taken over by Bernard and Charly Foucault in 1969 but had been in their family since 1894. Clos Rougeard is well-known for the extremely limited wine production (around 2,500 cases each year) of very high quality. All its wine is sold by allocation only, and we got lucky to get some!
Clos Rougeard produces only four wines: Brézé, Le Clos, Les Poyeux and Le Bourg. The Foucault brothers' approach to their wine is fundamentally one of minimum intervention, extremely low yields, no chemicals or pesticides, hand-harvested fruit, natural yeasts, no filtering, no fining, and gravity bottling after up to 24 months in oak.
The Les Poyeux cuvée comes from a parcel of land that was first cultivated in 1664. The Cabernet Franc is aged in one-year-old oak barrels for 18 to 24 months. It boasts a deep ruby colour that is markedly different from other Saumur-Champigny wines, attesting to this wine's deepness.
Grape variety: 100% Cabernet Franc