Clos Rougeard Saumur‑Champigny Clos 2020 is to the Loire what Richebourg of Domaine de la Romanée‑Conti is to Burgundy: a mythical wine, of unrivalled complexity, uniquely mirroring its place of origin, exceptionally rare and highly sought after. It is enough to say that many wine critics rank the Cabernet Francs of Clos Rougeard among the very finest in the world. Clos Rougeard Saumur‑Champigny Clos 2020 is therefore a category unto itself: not merely a Saumur‑Champigny, but the wine that sets the benchmark for all red wines of the Loire.
Clos Rougeard represents the very essence of the Loire’s quiet power and a living distillation of history that begins in 1894 in Chacé. For generations, the estate passed from hand to hand until it attained “mythical” status under brothers Charly and Nady Foucault, who elevated the philosophy of “letting the wine speak without distraction” into an art form. After 2015, the Bouygues family (also behind Château Montrose in Saint‑Estèphe) continued this legacy with great respect, preserving intact the identity of this cult and iconic domaine. It is worth noting that the bottles of its -just four- labels are released in vanishingly small quantities and distributed strictly via allocation—so you can imagine just how fortunate we are to have secured a few.
The grapes for Clos Rougeard Saumur‑Champigny Clos come from three vineyards with vines aged between 50 and 70 years old. Its winemaking remains minimally interventionist, honoring the philosophy of the Foucault family: hand harvesting, fermentation with indigenous yeasts in concrete vats, gentle extraction, aging in small oak barrels for 18–24 months, no filtration or additives, followed by further maturation in the estate’s deep underground cellars until the wine is ready for release. The 2020 vintage, warm yet beautifully balanced, delivered bright and crunchy fruit, floral and herbal character and effortless elegance — in other words, an ideal expression of Cabernet Franc.
This is unquestionably a wine worth owning.
