feature / on the vine / Clos Rougeard


Blanc and Cabernet Franc, and on the town’s most celebrated producer, Clos Rougeard. Representing all that is great about the wines of the Loire Valley, Rougeard dedicates its production to monocépage, with one white wine made under the appellation of Anjou Blanc and three red wines that all fall under the jurisdiction of Saumur-Champigny. A small but consequential appellation, which covers a mere 1,500ha (3,700 acres) along a plateau of tuffeau (of which more later), Saumur-Champigny is located between Saumur itself and, farther to the east, the town of Montsoreau. The wines are paragons of purity, thus far at ease with climate change and with distinct and memorable personalities. The property is described by its new owners, Eutopia Estates, as a “singular mythical domaine,” for once not the overstatement of a proud new parent. The wines of Clos Rougeard are always fascinating, especially when compared with the best examples from neighbors Bourgueil and St-Nicolas-de-Bourgueil. And then, why not, with the other great Cabernet Francs and Chenin Blancs of the world.


Rooted in revealing the truth of terroirs Clos Rougeard is based in the village of Chacé, just outside the town. Production is modest, usually between 40,000 and 50,000 bottles per annum; the wines, as we have seen, are steeped in the virtues of the varietal but also of the single vineyard, with three reds and one white in production, all of which also respect the great virtue of patience and are released five or six years after the vintage. A dazzling quartet of 2019s is now emerging, therefore. If, however, one is expecting Azay-le-Rideau architectural


144 | THE WORLD OF FINE WINE | ISSUE 87 | 2025


grandeur in deference to reputation, then one will be disappointed. The winery, formerly used by the Compagnie des Grands Vins to make sparkling wine, was purchased as late as 2010 and has steadily been refurbished (slate and pine and modern art), with the latest addition a new family of 46hl vats, their size focused on emphasizing the nuanced differences between the plots. Pragmatism meets poetry head on, and the beauty is mainly in the bottle. For eight generations, the domaine was run by the enigmatic


Foucault family. Legendary in situ tastings and a suitably gnomic interface with the media forged a reputation not unlike that of Domaine de la Romanée-Conti in Burgundy or, even more apposite, Château Rayas in Châteauneuf-du-Pape. From 1969, the property was run by charismatic brothers known as Nady and Charly (real names Bernard and Jean-Louis), the latter so named because he apparently bore a resemblance to local saint Charles Foucault (no relation), who was canonized for curing a woman who had impaled herself on the railings of L’Eglise St-Pierre in Saumur. There was no longer a clos, no grand winery to show off, and as it turned out, there was no clear line of succession to carry the family into the ninth generation of Foucault ownership. In 2017, the property was sold to the Bouygues family, best known for telecommunications but also, latterly, for purchasing and reawakening two famous wineries in Bordeaux: Châteaux Montrose and Tronquoy in St-Estèphe. Clos Rougeard has joined a family that also includes Domaine Rebourseau in Gevrey-Chambertin and RdV Vineyards in Virginia, not to mention a prestigious truffle farm,


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