Clos Rougeard is the Loire’s cult Cabernet Franc estate, a tiny, family-grown domaine in Saumur-Champigny whose wines have become touchstones for finesse, depth and longevity. The Foucault family has worked these vineyards for generations, but it was the brothers Charly (Jean-Louis) and Nady (Bernard) Foucault who, from the 1970s onward, quietly defined a new standard for the appellation: organic farming before it was fashionable, obsessive selection in the vines, and patient, low-intervention élevage in the cellar.
The domaine farms old vines on the region’s classic tuffeau (chalk-limestone) and clay-limestone slopes, keeping yields very low to capture purity and concentration without heaviness. Fermentations are spontaneous, extractions are gentle, and the wines are aged for extended periods in barrel (largely used French oak), then bottled unfined and unfiltered after they have found their natural balance. The result is Cabernet Franc with silken texture and striking aromatic detail — blackcurrant and red cherry woven with violets, graphite, sweet tobacco and cool, stony minerality.
Clos Rougeard is best known for three Saumur-Champigny reds:
Les Poyeux — from sandy, limestone-influenced soils that give aromatic lift and supple tannins.
Le Bourg — from an old-vine, clay-rich clos producing the most powerful, age-worthy wine of the trio.
Clos Rougeard (Saumur-Champigny) — the estate’s “village” cuvée, anything but simple, often outclassing others’ top wines.
There is also a tiny-production Saumur Blanc Brézé (Chenin Blanc) from chalky terroirs across the hill of Brézé, famed for its tension, depth and capacity to age.
After Charly Foucault’s passing in 2015, the estate was acquired in 2017 by the Bouygues family (also owners of Château Montrose). The team has maintained the same vineyard philosophy and slow, detail-driven cellar work, preserving the domaine’s unmistakable style while investing in its long-term health.
Production remains minuscule, demand is global, and the wines age effortlessly for decades. Clos Rougeard is not about power; it is about precision, quiet intensity and terroir clarity — Cabernet Franc at its most eloquent.
