I purchased this wine on release from the importer and have had it hidden at the back of my cellar (temp controlled) since that time. Only recently offered for sale, it's from from cult producer Clos Rougeard, based in the Saumur-Champigny appellation of the Loire Valley.
The estate has been run by the Foucault family since 1894, and in 1969 was taken over by brothers Bernard (better known as "Nady") and Charly Foucault. They produce only four wines: a white wine called Brézé, a Saumur (chenin blanc); and three 100-percent cabernet franc reds: Saumur Champigny Le Clos, Les Poyeux and Le Bourg.
Le Bourg is produced from a single-hectare (2.5-acre) plot of 70-year-old cabernet franc vines, and Les Poyeux comes from a parcel of land that was first cultivated in 1664.
The brothers' are into minimum intervention, extremely low yields, no chemicals or pesticides, hand-harvested fruit, natural yeasts, no filtering, no fining, and gravity bottling after up to 24 months in oak.
Following Charly's death in 2015, the estate was sold in 2017 to French construction and telecommunications magnates, the Bouygues brothers, who also run Château Montrose in St-Estephe (Bordeaux).
