Clos Rougeard: The Generations
These ancestors were not, it should be noted, named Foucault. The domaine’s path of inheritance passes through the female as well as the male line at times, and so over the years the names of the owners have changed. The earliest proprietors were named Venon, Esnault and Dubois, these families tending the vines through the late-17th, 18th and 19th centuries. Eventually it came to a Monsieur Milon Moreau, who was the grandfather of Charly and Nady Foucault. He held tenure here during the first half of the 20th century, into the 1950s. He had just one child, a daughter, who married one Monsieur Raymond Foucault, and it was Raymond who therefore eventually took on the running of the domaine. He is, of course, the father of Charly and Nady.
What is perhaps most important to appreciate is that, during the Milon Moreau era, and also when Raymond Foucault was in charge, the vineyards were then as they are now. In terms of the parcels worked, these were almost exactly the same (the only significant difference being the acquisition of a parcel of Chenin Blanc at Brézé in 1993). Perhaps more significant is that the vineyards were also tended in the same manner. While their neighbours were buying into the sales patter of the chemical industry’s salesmen, working their vineyards hard with herbicides, pesticides and fertilisers, pruning long and selling large quantities of questionable wine to the bistros of Paris, the Moreau grandfather and Foucault father continued working in their own more time-honoured manner.
