Clos Rougeard Saumur Blanc BREZE 2017 750ml

Expert Review – Vintage 2018

94 Points Vinous |The phrase ‘ripe yet precise’ encapsulates the 2017 Brze, Clos Rougeard’s single and singular, dry white wine. It has two different fruit spectrums – there’s citrus fruit from the north-facing vines and a later picked, riper, almost tropical, cooked pineapple character.Fermented in barrel, there are oak-derived vanilla flavors that join the fruit while a whiff of match stick indicates a lightly reductive character that needs air. It is round yet retains a bright, racy freshness that you often see in Brz whites. Focused and fine, this has the substance and line to evolve gracefully.
90 Points Decanter |The nose is relatively restrained, while the palate balances between fruity and savoury with a lively sense of acidity, and shows the general tightness of the vintage. At the moment this is showing a tendency towards the sourness Chenin Blanc can express in leaner years, and it seems the least successful of the trio from 2019 to 2017. A faint overlay of minerality is less obvious than in 2019.