Clos Rougeard: Wines
Certain generalisations can be made regarding the harvest and vinifications, before looking at the individual cuvées in more detail. First, the entire harvest is effected by hand, and the freshly-picked fruit transported immediately to the cellars for vinification. Until recently, this would have happened behind the aforementioned grey and anonymous gates on the Rue d’Église, where there was plenty of room in the courtyard for sorting and destemming the fruit, before it disappeared into the subterranean cellars. In 2014, however, the Foucault frères acquired new cellars just around the corner (pictured below, in their refurbished state).
These cellars are not only subterranean, but are subterranean on several levels, as I seem to recall (unless I lost count) descending three levels before coming to the lowest, where the barrels repose in peace. Here, a full 12 metres below ground level, the air temperature is a very steady 12ºC. On my first visit here, back in 2015, Nady Foucault told me this complex of cellars was once used as a mushroom farm, but Cyril Chirouze – the winemaker appointed by the Bouygues family in late 2023 to take charge of the domaine – disputes this. He points to an old ceiling mounted pully and hoist system as evidence that there was winemaking here, probably sparkling wine. The pully and hoist would have been used for moving pallets and barrels.