TN: 2014 Clos Rougeard (Foucault) Saumur-Champigny Les Poyeux

2014 Clos Rougeard (Foucault) Saumur-Champigny Les Poyeux - France, Loire Valley, Anjou-Saumur, Saumur-Champigny (9/17/2021)
Dark garnet color, not quite opaque. Writing this from half a (fridged) bottle remaining after being opened two days ago. On day one, the nose was strongly green and herbal, and the wine fairly tight, unyielding, and tannic. Much of that green herbal character has dissipated, leaving more green tobacco, white pepper, hints of dark fruit; the palate shows deep red fruit, dominated by dried herbs and spice, hint of orange peel, with perfectly balancing acidity, and moderate fine tannic structure. Incipient complexity galore, but backward and brooding at this young age. I wouldnā€™t touch this for 5 years at minimum, and probably hope to be drinking a peak bottle in a decade and beyond. (93 pts.)

Whatā€™s the difference between green herbal and green tobacco? Iā€™m not being facetious, I have some ā€˜14 Rougeard and am intimately focused on when to open them.

Awesome, note. These are special wines in a special Loire CF vintage. My fave in many years. These will rival 1989 and 1990.

I absolutely love this wine. 2014 is fantastic.

Maybe Alan and you can hook up! Sorry, intimacy joke.
Shocks me that Alan likes CF. My one and only bottle of Clos Rougeard was in the Marina district of SF at list price. Yes, it was way too young (and probably sold out a week later). Wife insisted on spaghetti & MB. No, donā€™t order that. You know it really didnā€™t really go with the wine.

Please donā€™t report me in the ā€œcritic bingoā€ thread!

Good question, and I probably deserve some scrutiny for the comments. Green herbal is meant to suggest that raw, underripe green stem note, something Iā€™m personally not fond of. Green tobacco is a more attractive and enticing ā€œgreenā€ note, but itā€™s clearly still green, not dried herbs/tobacco. This wine showed a very strong green stem note on night one, almost all of which is gone now, two nights later.

As for when to drink, I poured the regular bottle for my zoom group a few months ago, and Iā€™d say it was pretty backward, similar to this Poyeux. Depending on how many you have, it wouldnā€™t be a mistake to open one to get a feeling for the vintage, but I would seriously suggest going to the extreme of double (maybe triple) decanting a couple of days ahead.

Huh, wondering what Iā€™ve posted that would suggest I donā€™t like CF? Itā€™s true I donā€™t drink or post much on the grape, but itā€™s not because I donā€™t enjoy it, more that Iā€™ve just not focused on it as much as some here.

This bottle was not much over retail on a restaurant list, wife was pretty encouraging that we order it :slight_smile:

I will admit it was probably a leading question. I know the right answer is to bury these bottles until 2030. I donā€™t have many 2-3?

thank you for the clarity, I do get what you are saying about the raw green vs not so raw green. I get that same thing with on-the-verge tomatoes. There is under ripe and then there is green but perfect (all only a day apart).

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Tim, with just 2 or 3, Iā€™d probably save them, let them settle in for a few years at least.

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We had it at Bistro Aix, now closed, same thing as you with pricing $10 to $20 over then retail.

Ideally, 2030. Do you have any Les Clos? Pop those first.

A timely point, my backyard tomatoes have finally reached their end for the season. The last few harvested reached decent, if less than glamorous, color, feel ripe, but just lack flavor. Itā€™s an interesting window into fruit ripening, optimal flavor and balance.

I just picked the last 15 this morning, there were at least another 2 dozen that had overripened and split and were rotting on the vine. Our house hit tomato saturation a few weeks back. I donā€™t need to eat another BLT, caprese salad, fresh tomato basil paste, etcā€¦ until June 2022. Bring on the winter squash and stew!

Just curious, what are the prices that you get these in the restaurants mentioned here. Just wanted to get an idea of what good pricing is for this wine at restaurants. WS-Pro list these at $300 now. Bought mine at retail for $180.