Clos Rougeard, 2009 Saumur-Champigny 'Les Poyeux'

Cab Franc du Jour #48

For many wine professionals and enthusiasts, Clos Rougeard is as iconic a domaine as it gets. Coveted and cherished alongside greats like Raveneau, Selosse, Dagueneau, Chave, and others, these wines represent the upper echelon of Cabernet Franc. I've often referred to this domaine as being a "North Star" example of Cabernet Franc for many.

Clos Rougeard: Then and Now

The first indication of vines being cultivated under the estate's ownership dates to 1664, and through eight generations of the Foucault family, the domaine passed intact from parent to single heir, sparing it the fragmentation that French inheritance laws have visited upon so many historic estates.

Under the direction of the late Charly Foucault and his brother Nady, the domaine quietly ascended to cult status in the early 2000s, though the philosophy that underpins it was never fashionable to begin with. While their neighbours embraced the herbicides and pesticides of the 1950s and 1960s, the Foucaults continued farming organically, and when the conversation around traditional methods began to resurface in the 1990s, Clos Rougeard found itself not catching up but already there. They were often criticized for being old-fashioned, which in hindsight looks less like a criticism and more like the highest possible compliment.

The domaine’s holdings in Saumur-Champigny have remained virtually unchanged across all eight generations: 11 hectares of vines from which three Cabernet Francs are produced, Le Clos, a blend across several parcels in Chacé, and two single lieu-dit wines, Les Poyeux and Le Bourg, alongside a Chenin Blanc from parcels in Brézé.

The influence of the Clos Rougeard on the region’s winemaking culture is impossible to overstate, with disciples including Romain Guiberteau, Thierry Germain, Arnaud Lambert among those shaped by the Foucault philosophy. Following Charly’s death in 2015, his brother Nady, with no heirs, faced a difficult decision, and the domaine was eventually sold in 2017 to the owner of Château Montrose in Bordeaux, bringing to a close one of the Loire Valley’s most singular family stories.

Les Poyeux: History and Terroir

Les Poyeux is widely considered the most prestigious Cabernet Franc vineyard in the Loire Valley, possibly the world. Its reputation was cemented by Clos Rougeard, whose rise to international acclaim in the mid-2000s brought this unassuming lieu-dit into the spotlight. The vineyard’s historical record as a high-quality site dates to the early 1800s, yet despite its prestige, there is nothing physically marking it — no wall, no sign, no structure.

Les Poyeux: Size and Location

Les Poyeux spans 30 hectares in the eastern part of the commune of Chacé in Saumur-Champigny, accounting for just over a quarter of Chacé’s total delineated vineyard area. Given this scale, the terroir across the lieu-dit is far from homogenous. The vineyard divides naturally into three main sections: a northerly portion, a mid-slope heart, and a southern section, each with its own exposure profile, ranging from slight northwestern aspects in the north to predominantly full south-facing parcels in the south.

Les Poyeux: Soils!

A vineyard of this size is, perhaps unsurprisingly, by no means homogeneous. The majority of the lieu-dit sits mid-slope where we have the influence of the Turonian tuffeau chalk. The upper part of the vineyard has predominantly the influence of the Upper Turonian yellow tuffeau. Further down the slope and making up the majority of the vineyard’s surface is the influence of the Middle Turonian white tuffeau, known locally as craie verte (green chalk) for its glauconitic-micaceous composition. Across both, topsoils are shallow with a silt-sand-clay mix. Stoniness varies considerably and unpredictably from parcel to parcel, ranging from as little as 5% to nearly 100%.

Clos Rougeard Parcels and Winemaking

Clos Rougeard’s holdings at Les Poyeux are 3 hectares of 50-year-old vines. Their parcels are located in a rather unique part of the lieu-dit. Not only are they on a section that has the influence of the Upper Turonian yellow tuffeau chalk bedrock, but the topsoil is sand, there is virtually no clay in the top or subsoil in their parcels. It is deeper sand over the yellow tuffeau chalk.

For the winemaking, the grapes are hand-harvested, hand-sorted, and 100% destemmed. Fermentation was in cement with indigenous yeast, with longer maceration, about 4 to 6 weeks. Aging was in older barriques for 18-24 months. For the Les Poyeux, none of the press wine is used in the final cuvée, rather the pressings from Les Poyeux and also from Le Bourg generally go into their Le Clos “entry-level” cuvée.

Wine Details

• Producer: Clos Rougeard

• Appellation: Saumur-Champigny

• Commune: Chacé

• Lieu-Dit: Les Poyeux

• Soils: Shallow sandy topsoil on the Middle Turonian white tuffeau chalk bedrock

• Alcohol: 12.5%