The Bouygues are one of France’s wealthiest families. Made their money in construction and now also own media and telco assets.
Sad.
Wow, I know the son has his own estate, but one would have assumed he would have taken it over as well as producing Collier. Crazy.
Isn’t it a nephew who is involved with Collier?
Antoine is the son of Charly.
Wow – that’s a surprise. I look forward to finding out details on the transaction, and more importantly the potential impact on the wines going forward…
You thought Rougeard was expensive already…
There is a possibility that the RVF have jumped the gun a little here. No deal between Nady Foucault and Martin Bouygues has been agreed - this comes from associates of Bouygues and Nady himself.
A sale seems imminent though, and both Bouygues and LVMH have been mentioned.
I would have thought Antoine Foucault would be interested in taking on the domaine, currently run by his uncle Nady, but it might be that with names like these involved the offers on the table are just too big to ignore.
More info from Yohan Castaing on http://liquidites.atabula.com (I would link direct to article but the site seems to be down with a 500 server error at the moment of posting).
Later edit to include direct links (in French):
The sale is on: http://liquidites.atabula.com/2017/01/04/coup-de-tonnerre-a-saumur-champigny-clos-rougeard-acquis-par-martin-bouygues/
The sale is not quite on after all: http://liquidites.atabula.com/2017/01/04/clos-rougeard-la-vente-a-martin-bouygues-nest-pas-actee/
Chris,
I know nothing about this but does the French inheritance laws have anything to do with this? Transfer from 2 family members to 1?
Inheritance tax in France is very punitive, but it can be worked around (e.g. creating a limited company) but I have no knowledge of the Foucault family’s personal arrangements.
Good to hear. Not that I can afford the wine any more…
Didn’y Bouygues buy Chateau Montrose ? Think they’re doing a great job there. Not sure why that would be sad- family gets a lot of money and a family that wants to maintain the highest standards ,gets the vineyards.Seems like a win win to me.
Bordeaux is a different kettle of fish. It’s always been a region with owners who don’t actually make the wine or tend the vines: wealthy, ambitious owners generally do well there though sometimes significantly altering the style of the wines in the process (Pavie, Pape Clement,…) or pushing prices up significantly even if it means selling less volume (Yquem, Latour). The track record of such an approach in more “agricultural” areas is mixed. I don’t think many people here would argue that Domaine d’Eugenie is quite as exciting as it was in its former guise as Rene Engel. Pousse d’Or, for me, has never regained the heights it reached under Gerard Potel’s leadership. There’s quite a bit of controversy at Huet at the moment. Clos des Lambrays is now in the process of significantly repositioning itself as a luxury product and priced as such.
The common thread between all the names above is that they’re all estates that were wine lovers’ favourites that have been bought out by very wealthy folks and, in my mind, lost some of their magic in the process.
Thomas puts it well. It’ll be hard to expect how Clos Rougeard can maintain the same wine-making tradition that had the passion of a family-owned and operated winery for decades. It will remain to be seen.
Expensive and scarce as they already were, Clos Rougeard’s wines, especially the reds, are arguably on another stratosphere relative to the rest of Loire’s wines.
This.
We’ll see in the end. Pushing up prices is as much the market as it is the producers, although Yquem has taken it to an extreme.( that will leave them with major inventory forever)since there are so few that need more Yquem at 700 a bottle that’s ready to drink in 15-40 yrs and can be found anywhere, well stored and basically at release prices.Seems to me Latour and the other first growths,whether recently purchased or not have raised they’re prices to a level that most are willing to drink it in restaurants and not worry about provenance or cork issues.( although Latour is picking up a little extra money by holding the wines until they’re more drinkable and releasing them slower in this low interest rate enviroment )
I’m not sure I’d lump the Bouygues in with your other examples since I don’t think they’ll change the style of the wines.The first person they hired for Montrose was one of the greatest winemakers of the last 50 yrs in Bordeaux,Jean Bernard Delmas (Haut Brion )and more recently Herve Beland (Mouton ).
I agree its always hard to maintain the same level of passion as the original family, but I think the Bouygues are up to the task.
I’d quibble a bit with that characterization. I think of Rougeard like the Coche of the Loire. Surrounded by mythology and scarcity, priced quite high relative to peers, generally excellent and top level. I wouldn’t call them on another stratosphere, just as I don’t think that Coche wines are on another stratosphere from Roulot while no one would ever confuse the two when drinking them.
To me, the wines of Rougeard are so intertwined with the character of Nady that it is hard to think that they won’t change at least a bit. I’m glad I’ve been buying for a while because, like Coche, I doubt I’ll be bale to afford them in the future.
Thanks for the “quibble”. It brings another point-of-view that I appreciate and respect in this forum.
If Rougeard is the Coche, then what would you consider as the Roulot in the Loire?
Baudry?
I’m not sure I agree with your assessments here. Did Yquem and Latour raise prices for the sake of raising prices, or to keep up with their peers?
I also don’t totally agree with you about Engel’s transition to Eugenie. The later years of Engel show that he was transitioning out, and plenty of early wines are lovely, but I’ve had many bottles affected by lack of sanitation in the winery, whether it be VA or bret, neither of which I like in my wines. I’ve drank and owned a lot of Engel over the years, and given what they sell for now? I would have rather made the profit.
I can make the same argument about Pousse D’or. So much bottle variation, and I think the current Pousse D’or line up is priced very fairly. Huet is a different situation for sure, that I can agree with you on, but Boiron is still the winemaker at Lambrays, and they make no plans to change that either. I had already seen huge price jumps on Lambrays prior to it’s sale (the 2003 was like $75, and the 2010 was double that, if not more in some stores), so I’m not all that concerned about it.
I think the magic for Rougeard is in the elder Foucaults. Collier has been around long enough to know that any one who has drank wines from both houses know that there is no comparison. I’m sure they were offered a can’t resist price too, this is clearly a marquee brand and grows in reputation every day that someone new finds out about the wines.
I love Baudry’s wines. I’ve stupid amount of them stashed in my offsite. I’ve drank more than enough Baudry wines and just a few of Rougeards’ and I wish, but I really can’t say at this point that Baudry is the Roulot to Foucault’s Coche. I hate to compare, but this testimonial from Charles Joguet says a lot:
Charles Joguet, the great winemaker of Chinon, once said: “there are two suns. One shines outside for everybody. The second shines in the Foucaults’ cellar.”