Clos Rougeard, Le Clos, Saumur-Champigny, 2016, 750 ml

COUNTRY: France

REGION: Loire Valley

APPELLATION: Saumur Champigny

VARIETY: Cabernet Franc

VINTAGE: 2016

TERROIR: Le Clos comes from 10 small parcels spread over three communes. The total represents about 4.5 hectares of vines.

AGE OF VINES: The vines are very old here, 75 to 95.

FARMING: Organic

WINEMAKING: Grapes are destemmed then macerate for five weeks with submerged cap and pump-overs before continuing fermentation and aging in barrel with no additions of S02 until bottling. The wine typically sees a 18-24 month élevage in barrels of two to four wines. Some of the barrels from Les Poyeux or even Le Bourg can be added to this blend if they are not deemed qualitative enough (the former much more common than the latter). Interestingly, though this wine is widely known as Le Clos and it is marked on the cases it ships in, Le Clos is not written on the label.