Clos Rougeard Les Poyeux 2009

Jane Anson: Multiple bottles served over dinner with some variation. When it struck gold, it was the standout red of the night, exuding cherry purity, with a dollop of liqueur de cerise, and distinct spring flower notes. The Burgundian palate evinced wet stone minerality that comes only from noble wines in a texture both velvety and silky, but never glossy. Complexity-lending earthiness and floral bouquet finish evoked one word: gorgeous! No new oak for the 24 months ageing, then 4 years in bottle before release. This only loses a single point to reflect the possiblity of bottle variation.

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.