Clos Rougeard Les Poyeux 2009

Parker: Sweetly ripe black raspberry and elderberry are wreathed in buddleia and heliotrope florality in the nose of the 2009 Saumur-Champigny Les Poyeux – from a sandy as well as chalky site, and tasted from new and one-year barrels – and these transfer to a perfectly ripe palate that displays amazing fat and glyceral richness yet (by Foucault’s estimate, anyway) is only around 13.5% alcohol. Certainly this evinces no roughness or heat; on the contrary, the texture of this seamlessly-constructed wine is positively creamy. Peat, Latakia tobacco, iodine, crustacean shell reduction, toasted nuts, salt, and chalk are fully capable of holding their own against the waves of fruit that crest in a phenomenally long, minerally evocative finish. I would expect this to merit attention for at least 12-15 years, and it’s quite possible it will close up after bottling even though (unlike the corresponding Bourg) it is seductively textured and generous at present.