feature / on the vine / Clos Rougeard


The best way to understand such subtle differences is to taste the wines at different ages, first from barrel, then from bottle, with an older example added for good measure to assess evolution. Down, then, to the tuffeau cellars beneath the winery. Unlike the cellars in Champagne, there is little by way of dazzling chalk; more the soft (lichen) green-gray of this distinctive and distinctively porous material. Tuffeau, it seems, was formed during the Turonian Era (hence Touraine) and melds sand, marine fossils, and porous rock. The barrel samples from 2024 have just completed their malolactic fermentation and are hard to judge. According to Cyril, 2024 is very much a “classic” vintage, cool and crisp, with an early budding and a long growing season, frost the most pressing concern early in the year and some aggressive mildew later on. In Cyril’s opinion, the vintage demonstrates that the concept of “global warming” needs to be addressed with caution; climate change, for sure, however, with the early cycle especially challenging. Cyril has not used candles to fight the frost but has added an electric heating system to the Guyot cabling in the Bourg vineyard to combat the latent risk. It was even more problematic in Bourgueil, Cyril reveals; Champigny, etymologically, describes “fields of fire” (Campus Igneous), which correctly implies a warmer microclimate. The wines, in any event, are succulent, lifted, and rich—Les Poyeux with aromas of blossom fruit and spice; Le Bourg offering an intriguing juxtaposition of saffron and juniper… à suivre. The white wine is taut, with the firm, citric acidity typical of Chenin at this age, and a beguiling floral aromatic that is still somewhat phased by the wood.


The Bouygues family has no intention to expand either the range or the modest holdings; the laissez-faire approach that underwrites the winemaking so successfully, looks set to preserve the overall framework. This is refreshing, especially when one considers the demand for these wines


Next up are the 2023 reds, now in their second year in wood. Cyril describes 2023, his first year at Rougeard, as “a baptism of fire.” He does concede, however, that Cabernet Franc does not fundamentally differ so greatly from Gamay, his partner at Château des Jacques for many years. 2023 was warmer than 2024, but nowhere near as warm as, say, 2022 or 2018. Frost was again a problem, as was intermittent and unpredictable rain, with significant precipitation late in the spring, then toward the end of August and also in early September, with little by way of an Indian summer to protect the harvest. The results impress, however, and the difference between the sites is once again underlined. Les Poyeux has a lifted, summer-pudding aromatic, with dark spice and ripe, generous, and silky fruit. The oak is discreet, none of it new, all of it highly prestigious (from Montrose, Angelus, and Figeac, no less). By way of contrast,


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


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