2006 Clos Rougeard Saumur-Champigny Le Bourg

Game, sweat, and saddle leather greet the nose from the Clos Rougeard 2006 Saumur-Champigny Le Bourg allied to sweet ripeness of black fruits, blond tobacco, sage, black pepper, and ginger. Given its aromas near-savage spiciness and pungency, this wine’s seamless richness and tender fruit and texture offer a striking but complimentary contrast. Crushed stone, nut paste, confitured blackberry, blond tobacco, and brown spices inform a memorably long finish. As much fun as it is to drink this today, it should be worth following for at least another 6-8 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.”) Importer: Louis/Dressner Selections, New York, NY; tel. (212) 334 8191