Charly Foucault plus assistant connecting the hose
Charly Foucault watching grapes and must going into vat down in cellar
Foucaults: at the sorting table
Thierry Germain checking grapes
Showing posts with label Clos Rougeard. Show all posts
Red light in le Petit Pressigny
During dinner at La Promenade on Saturday night, Xavier Fortin, the restaurant's long-serving sommelier, kindly invited us to visit the restaurant's cellars the next morning around 11am. This gave me time to wander around the village (population: 326 in 2006) and, in particular, to admire the new traffic lights in the centre of the village. These are a traffic calming measure – changing colour as cars etc. approach.
Among the treasures in La Promenade's cellars, there are some very old bottles from the Foucaults (in Chace). The oldest being a 1900 Saumur-Champigny.
Xavier kindly opened a 2004 Muscadet Sèvre et Maine from André Michel Brégeon. Now one of the crus communales it spent five years on its lees. Light to mid-gold in colour this has a richness and complexity that one doesn't normally associate with Muscadet. At the same time it is brilliantly precise and mineral in the finish. A grand vin but not at a grand vin price.
Getting the green light
Among the treasures in La Promenade's cellars, there are some very old bottles from the Foucaults (in Chace). The oldest being a 1900 Saumur-Champigny.
1900 Clos Rougeard, Saumur-Champigny (Foucault)
Xavier Fortin who has been at La Promenade since 1988
2004 Muscadet Sèvre-et-Maine, André Michel Brégeon
Xavier kindly opened a 2004 Muscadet Sèvre et Maine from André Michel Brégeon. Now one of the crus communales it spent five years on its lees. Light to mid-gold in colour this has a richness and complexity that one doesn't normally associate with Muscadet. At the same time it is brilliantly precise and mineral in the finish. A grand vin but not at a grand vin price.
2000 Brézé, Saumur Blanc, Clos Rougeard
Not only do you eat well at La Promenade but you always drink well too as they have an excellent wine list. The Loire has a pride of place but there are also good things from Burgundy, the Rhône and Languedoc-Roussillon.
The wines on the Frères Foucault have a significant place on the list and it wasn't difficult to decide to go for one of their whites from Brézé for our apero and first couple of courses. Xavier Fortin, their fine sommelier, recommended with any hesitation the 2000. I sure he was right as this complex wine was showing very well with honey, butter and vanilla notes and some minerality in the finish. Top white Saumur can provide white Burgundy with fierce competition.
2003 Les Arboises, Brézé, Domaine Guiberteau
Xavier Fortin, La Promenade's sommelier, had mentioned when we arrived that there would be a group of producers from the Loire and elsewhere in for lunch. Among those he mentioned was Romain Guiberteau. On several occasions I have tasted the Guiberteau wines at the Salon des Vins de Loire but never yet got round to visiting them nor drinking one of their wines. When I saw this 2003 on the list I decided this was the moment. It proved to be fortunate as this was the last bottle on the list and it turned out to be a lovely opulent 2003 – rich and softly textured black fruits.
Who said that the 2003s would rapidly fall apart?!
