Clos Rougeard: Tasting & Drinking
There are some who point out, with some justification, that some tasting notes fail to convey whether or not the taster actually liked the wine. Notes can be descriptive, and accurate, and insightful, but without the taster revealing whether he or she was moved to love or to loathe the wine. This is where scores come in handy. And what about profiles? Do the preceding pages declare whether or not I love or loathe the wines of Clos Rougeard? It is difficult to ‘score’ a profile, so let me try and put it in words.
For me, the wines of Clos Rougeard are clearly the best in Saumur-Champigny. Indeed, they are the best red wines made in the entire Loire Valley. There are some wines that can match them in terms of quality, the top cuvées from the likes of Bernard Baudry or Philippe Alliet being real contenders, but no domaine gives us a range of wines, from entry-level to flagship cuvée, to match those of Clos Rougeard. When they are at their best, these are wines that could hold their own against the very best wines of Bordeaux.
This isn’t merely exaggeration on my part. To my palate, the wines have a savoury depth but perfumed delicacy that reminds me of Château Haut-Brion most of all, and if that estate were to be excluded I would turn next to some of the classic left bank styles for my alternative comparison. Others, however, prefer to think of Clos Rougeard in the context of the right bank rather than the left, no doubt drawn there by the Cabernet Franc. This much was evident when, in 1993, the 1990 Clos Rougeard Le Bourg was included as a ‘ringer’ in a now-famous blind tasting of 1990 Pomerols in Paris, including wines from Petrus, Le Pin, La Conseillante and Trotanoy, among others. I probably don’t need to tell you which wine, to the great surprise of all those present when the labels were revealed, triumphed on the day. Yes, that’s right. Tasted blind, the 1990 Clos Rougeard Le Bourg rubbed the noses of certain Pomerols in the dirt.
These are truly great wines. I adore them. Having said that, like any wine, from Petrus to the first growths of Pauillac, they are not always perfect. In lesser vintages – the one that jumps immediately to mind is 2004 – they display the green methoxypyrazine character that can afflict Cabernet Franc (and other related varieties) in cooler years when the hours of sunshine have been inadequate to rid the grapes of this herbaceous flavour. I like this feature of Cabernet Franc when it adds a nuance of complexity, an edge of mint or green peppercorn, but when it turns the wine a leafy-herby green I find it much less appealing. It is not an interesting Loire characteristic to my mind, merely an indicator of unripe fruit. Nobody, and no domaine, is perfect, regardless of what some critics might tell you.
The wines of Clos Rougeard have to be experienced once in any wine drinker’s life, and despite the ever-rising prices I will do my best, bank manager permitting, to continue to add them to my cellar, even if it is just one or two bottles (although, looking back, I seem to have failed at this promise to myself). After yet, just as a Bordeaux critic has no context if he or she does not know the first growths, a critic of the Loire Valley has no context if he or she does not know Clos Rougeard. With that in mind, I guess I will just have to keep visiting in order to taste the wines of this famous domaine, and to keep my context. (9/10/08, updated 11/12/15, 2/7/17, 8/3/25)
