Clos Rougeard 2006

The Clos Rougeard 2006 Saumur-Champigny smells of game and lightly-cooked black fruits, with hints of narcissus, decadent lily, and machine oil. Round and rich on the plate with hints of cocoa powder, mocha, brown spices, and almond extract complimenting its rich fruit. A bottle open for a day had sweetened even further; lost most of its gaminess; and displayed a lovely sense of lift to accompany its subtly creamy texture. This long-finishing beauty will probably best be enjoyed over the next 3-4 years. It was possible for me to garner only a limited perspective on recent vintages when I visited in June at Clos Rougeard (for more about which, see my report in issue 172). The 2009s had not entirely completed malo-lactic fermentation, but Nadi Foucault – who compares them with 1990s, and 2005 with 2009 – proudly showed them off; and no wonder, as they display awesome potential and a richness unprecedented in my experience of Loire Cabernet Franc, yet without going overboard or (as it appears at this early stage, anyway) suffering any ill-effects from high alcohol. The Foucault brothers’ 2008s had barely finished their malo-lactic transformations ahead of the 2009s and were themselves not only gassy but resistant to scrutiny, while the 2007s had just recently been disturbed by assembly into tank in preparation for bottling, in which state the Foucaults were loath to show them. (Notes on the estate’s recent whites can -- in the print edition of this report – be found in my parallel report: “Anjou and Saumur: Nobly Sweet and Nobly Dry.”)