The last of the 2017 Cabernet Franc from
a vineyard close to Doué-la-Fontaine
On Thursday September we spent part of the morning at Sylvain Dittièrie and Pauline Foucault’s La Porte Saint Jean Montrueil-Bellay seeing the last day of their 2017 harvest. This was our first visit to this domaine that started in 2010 with three hectares, which has now grown to 8.5 hectares. « We won’t go above 8.5 hectares, » says Sylvain.
Some of their vines are close to Doué-la-Fontaine off the road from Montrueil-Bellay to Doué – Guillaume Piré’s Fosse Sèche has vines nearby. The other parcel is in Chacé, AC Saumur-Champigny and the home commune of the Foucaults.
Our immediate impetus in visiting La Porte Saint Jean was to see Françoise Foucault, who we haven’t seen since the sad death of her husband, Charly Foucault, right at the end of the 2015. We were delighted when Françoise contacted us recently through Facebook. We first met Françoise when she was making the wine at Château Yvonne in the mid to late 1990s. I had first met Charly along with his brother Nady in 1990.
It was great to see Françoise again. She was cooking for the harvest crew as well as looking after Pauline and Sylvain’s five year old son, who was poorly so off school.
Sylvain served an extensive apprenticeship before setting up La Porte Saint Jean with stints at Château Yvonne (commune of Parnay, AC Saumur-Champigny), Thierry Germain (Domaine des Roches Neuves, Saumur and Saumur-Champigny) and the Foucault brothers at Clos Rougeard as well as with Gérard Gauby in the Roussillon and Marc Tempé in Alsace.
With Sylvain I tasted several samples from barrels down in the extensive cave that is reached by quite a steep slope close to the house – echoes of Antoine Foucault’s cave at his parents’ house in Chacé. The limestone rock here, however, is not the same being Jurassic. We tasted the young vines Chenin Blanc – just 60 years old, so a mere stripling! The old vines come from plants of 90 years old. We also tasted the 2016 Porte de Saint Jean Saumur-Champigny and the 2016 and 2015 red Saumur. The 2015 Champigny is now in bottle – Sylvain gives the red Saumur a long élèvage.
The 2015 Saumur-Champigny Porte Saint Jean is promising with ripe fruit and attractive texture but is still quite tight in the finish, so would benefit from another couple of years in bottle.
I fancy that Charly Foucault would feel more at home here at La Porte Saint Jean than at Clos Rougeard now that it has been bought by Martin Bouygues. Certainly while I was with Sylvain, Pauline and Françoise I felt a strong sense that Charly’s esprit lives on here.
Coming soon – Antoine Foucault’s new property and winery.
The press area @Porte Saint Jean with
Pauline Foucault in the centre
Trio of dogs supervising end of the 2017 harvest
Sylvain Dittière in the upper chai
Part of the extensive cave under
the house and the grounds
(above and below)
Sylvain taking a sample
of his Chenin Blanc
…. now ready to pour a tasting sample
Sylvain Dittière down in the cellar with his 2015 Saumur Rouge
Sylvain relaxing now the 2017 harvest is finished
Les 5 du Vin 
La Rvf seems to think Martin Bouygues will respect the Foucault Brothers’ heritage:
« Il aura fallu près de six mois de tractations pour finaliser la vente du Clos Rougeard. C’est le temps qui s’est écoulé entre l’annonce des négociations par La RVF, le 4 janvier dernier, et la signature des deux parties hier soir jeudi 22 juin.
Une longue période durant laquelle un lien de confiance s’est tissé entre Martin Bouygues et Nady Foucault. Nés en 1952 tous les deux, le puissant homme d’affaires et le talentueux vigneron ont trouvé un accord pour inscrire Clos Rougeard dans la continuité. Le second a obtenu du premier l’assurance que l’esprit dans lequel le domaine était conduit serait préservé. »
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Hervé. I’m not suggesting that Martin Bouygues doesn’t intend to respect the Foucault heritage. My post and the subsequent one on Antoine Foucault is about places where the ‘esprit’ of Charly Foucault lives on.
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By the way, the link in your last sentence doesn’t work
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Will check it shortly.
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Jim, you may have missed the numerous episodes of my comments being « omitted » by WordPress. I have resolved not to make additional ones any longer. But I’m still a faithful reader. Proof to it: your sentence should read » … whom we haven’t seen since etc … ». The « omission » of letters, this time, we’ll blame on good Loire wine rather than the wickedness of your webmaster.
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Many thanks Luc – my mistake entirely.
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