Yannick Amirault

Bourgueil is located west of Tours in the western part of the Loire Valley. Bourgueil is situated on the northern side of the Loire, across the river from Chinon, and represents one of the northern-most appellations for growing red grape varieties in France. There are mostly 3 distinct soil types here, limestone on the higher plateau, gravel below and sandy soils closer to the Loire. The biggest and most cellar-worthy wines generally coming from the best vineyards on the slopes located further away from the Loire to the north and north-east of the town of Bourgueil. The vineyards on the flat sandy river soils closer to the Loire yield wines which are usually aromatic, elegant and earlier to mature.

The Amiraults have about 20 hectares of vineyard holdings in Saint Nicolas (1/3rd) and Bourgueil (2/3rd), mostly located on, or just at, the base of these slopes to the north and northeast of the village of Bourgueil. Yannicks son Benoit now runs the estate and like his father he has chosen to work organically in the vineyards and is certified organic (Ecocert). All vinifications are made with indigenous yeasts with minimal SO2 and ageing takes place in a mixture of large tronconic oak vats, larger demi-muid barrels and increasingly in clay amphora. Extraction is long (up to 6 weeks) yet very gentle. All wines are bottled un-fined and unfiltered. Amirault produces 4 Bourgueil’s and 3 St Nicolas de Bourgueil’s and a stunning barrel fermented Rosé from which we have selected following;

100% Cabernet Franc for all wines

“This domaine, I believe, turns out some of the very best red wines in the entire Loire Valley.” Chris Kissack, thewinedoctor.com

2023 Bourgueil Rose d’Equinoxe - VERY limited
Very small quantities of this outstanding Rose that we have been trying to buy for years. Fermented and aged in a mixture of demi-muids barrels with a little barrel stirring. Made from very low yields of 25 hl/ha from mostly sandy soils with no de-stemming of the bunches, full fermentation and partial malo is done in barrel for 5-12 months with no racking. Bone dry with zero rs this is one of the most complex and textured Rose wines that we have seen. This is essentially a blanc de noirs, so pale you could be forgiven for thinking it is a white wine. Only a few cases imported and made available to us from the Amirault family stash and we aim to drink it ourselves so if you want a few bottles you will need to be very quick indeed..!! We love this wine.
2022 review A delightful food rosé, the 2022 Rosé d'Equinoxe is a dry, full-bodied style with structure and savory notes. Nutty flavors meet pear and ripe apple. There's a gentle stream of acidity that flows on the structured finish. 93 points, Rebecca Gibb MW, Vinous Media, July 2024.

2023 Saint Nicholas de Bourgueil La Source
Produced from vines planted mostly on sandy soils with an average age of 30+ years, this wine is vinified in tank and aged in large ‘tronconic’ barrels designed specially in this area. The wine is loaded with perfumed cherry and red-currant fruit along with generous hints of spice, white pepper and even chocolate. This is a perfumed and supple wine that is perfect for drinking on its perfumed and fleshy primary fruit.
This is the entry-level cuvée from this appellation, the fruit fermented in stainless steel cuve with two or three weeks of maceration, followed by five months élevage in a 60-hectolitre tronconic cuve. This is fresh and expressive on the nose, very Cabernet Franc, with layers of cranberry and redcurrant, pure and bright. There follows a supple, polished and charming palate, with nicely balanced fruit and acidity, and barely a lick of tannin showing through. Charming, fragrant and perfumed, with a lovely sense of freshness, and nothing overdone. This will be drinking well within a year or two. The alcohol is about 13%. From my first taste of the Loire 2023 vintage. 90-92 points, Chris Kissack, thewinedoctor.com, February 2024

2023 Bourgueil Cote 50 - due 2025
Not so much a new cuvée from Yannick Amirault, rather expanding on what was La Coudraye, by including fruit from three extra lieu-sits: Les Sables, Les Pins and Les Perrières. The common link is that all these lieu-dits sit at 50m elevation above the Loire, hence the name. The fruit is all hand-picked into small baskets, double sorted and then destemmed but not crushed and fermented in small open vats. Gentle maceration over 3-4 weeks, followed by maturation in old oak foudres and sandstone amphorae for 7-12 months. Bottled unfined and unfiltered.
”An entry-level cuvée from Bourgueil, previously known as La Coudraye, and analogous to La Source in St Nicolas de Bourgueil. The vinification is the same, it being fermented in stainless steel cuve with two or three weeks of maceration, followed by five months élevage in a 60-hectolitre tronconic cuve. A more fruit-driven nose here, sweet cranberry and redcurrant, freshened with a touch of rose petal. This continues with a lovely sense of vigour and purity on the palate, with cranberry and rose fruit, set in a supple and delicately velvety texture, with fine grained and tightly knit tannins, and a delicate thread of acidity. It concludes in a rather dry, tannin-washed finish, with a peppery acid-fresh length. A good result. The alcohol is about 13.5%. From my first taste of the Loire 2023 vintage. 90-92/100” 90-92 points, Chris Kissack, thewinedoctor.com, February 2024

2022 Bourgueil Cote 50 - last cases
”The old La Coudraye, which changed to La Côte back in the 2018 vintage to reflect the variety of origins for the fruit. This is a sample drawn before bottling. A vibrant hue in the glass, and a beautifully pure and eager nose of black cherry, blackcurrant and damson fruits. The palate remains true to the nose, with that same sense of purity and an underbelly of soft chalk, before a sappy cherry-skin character at the end. Modestly extracted tannins, firm but not over done, with nice acidity for this warmer vintage, this should evolve nicely for some years, but should be ready to go within a year or two. The alcohol is said to be 13%.” 89-91 points, Chris Kissack, thewinedoctor.com, February 2023.

2021 Bourgueil Le Grand Clos
This wine is produced from old vines averaging more than 45 years old which are located around the middle of the slope on the best soils. The soils are superficially clay with flint, a mix also known as perruches, with deeper limestone. The wine is matured in 400 litre demi-muid barrels for 24 months and is the richest and deepest wine in his cellar. In great years the wine is a thick almost impenetrable black colour with amazing concentration and depth of mulberry and black raspberry fruit with anise and spice notes that linger for ages. This is a wine that shows very well at a relatively young age in ripe years like 2019, and which will also age effortlessly for decades. This wine has remarkable depth of fruit supported by substantial fine tannins with just enough acidity to keep the wine fresh and appetizing without becoming too heavy. From the outstanding 2019 vintage, this is a remarkably fresh and pure wine of substantial depth and structure. This is Bourgueil, and Cabernet Franc, at its finest.
From one of Bourgueil’s grandest terroirs, this has seen out an élevage lasting 14 months, 75% in oak barrels and 25% in amphorae. It presents a nose of bright red cherry and raspberry fruits, with a smoky freshness, with a little twist of menthol as a marker of the vintage. The palate is delicately formed, with a gentle blanket of desiccated red cherry and raspberry leaf, over a lightly formed and rather powdery body of tannins, and the vintage’s trademark acids. Charming, with a savoury and grippy finish, this should evolve well in the midterm thanks to that bright acidity. The alcohol on the label is 12.5%. 89 points, Chris Kissack, thewinedoctor.com, February 2023.

2022 Bourgueil Le Grand Clos - due 2025
”A richly fruited, silken, concentrated style reflecting the warm, dry season, the 2022 Le Grand Clos offers ripe blackberry, raspberry fruit and festive spices. At this early stage, the frame of the wine is almost like a rectangle with the tannins providing the outline and grippy corners. It's concentrated, long and fragrant but after 5 months in bottle, it needs another couple of years for the oak to integrate and its structure to mellow.” 92 points, Rebecca Gibb MW, Vinous Media, July 2024.

2020 Saint Nicholas de Bourgueil Les Malgagnes
The original Yannick Amirault parcel is Les Malgagnes, in St Nicolas de Bourgueil, located on the limestone côte, but not quite so far up the slope as the other three limestone lieux-dits which are further along, in Bourgueil. In Les Malgagnes the Amiraults have 2 hectares of vines, split between two parcels, aged on average 50 years. The superficial soils are rich in pale clay, with limestone beneath. Only the fruit from the upper section (above the grassy strip running through the middle of the lieu-dit, if you visit), where the limestone is much closer to the surface, is used for this cuvée. It sees a four-week maceration with an élevage lasting 12 months in large barrels. In 2015, however, a portion was also aged in three large amphorae. Of these, one was bottled as a special cuvée, Les Malgagnes Amphore, while the other was blended with the wine which underwent traditional élevage in oak. In subsequent vintages Yannick and Benoît have continued to produce these twin cuvées, which make for interesting side-by-side comparisons.
”The 2020 Malgagnes is very silky and elegant. The wines caresses the palate with its black cassis, dark chocolate and olive piquancy. Its ripe yet fresh; from chalky-clay soils, this gives a sense of purpose on the finish with fine-grained tannins that are currently abundant but perfectly extracted. Similar maturation to Le Grand Clos but a very different expression and needs laying down.” 93 points, Rebecca Gibb MW, Vinous Media, June 2022.

2021 Saint Nicholas de Bourgueil Les Malgagnes
”The 2021 Malgagnes speaks of both its place and its vintage. Hailing from the 2021 vintage, it doesn't lack in refreshing acidity and is less fruit-filled than warmer years. But on the clay soils (with a limestone vein), it offers a sense of flesh while remaining only a tad more than light in body. It speaks of low yields in its concentration and has an abundance of powdery tannins that coats the palate. The oak (80% in 450L casks, 20% in sandstone eggs) is well judged and, while clear in its cedar and mocha notes, is not out of place. With another year or two in bottle, it will further integrate. It's not the longest-lived Malgagnes, but it's still a very good site and a carefully-made wine.” 91 points, Rebecca Gibb MW, Vinous Media, December 2023.

2021 Saint Nicholas de Bourgueil Les Malgagnes Amphore
This is the amphore version of this cuvée, with both vinification and élevage entirely in large amphora. It opens with a nose of blackberry, blackcurrant skin and slate. This is matched by a restrained but delicately silky composition on the palate, with a lightly juicy character running through the middle, with a finely grained undercurrent of tannins which come out on the finish, showing a modest grain. This is very well put together in this cooler vintage, and I find myself enjoying it more then the ‘standard élevage‘ version in the same vintage (and this is not always the case). The alcohol on the label is 13%. 91 points, Chris Kissack, thewinedoctor.com, February 2023.

2022 Bourgueil Pavillon du Grand Clos - due 2025 - only made in the very best vintages
Made from a tiny 0.21 ha walled clos right in front of Nicole & Yannick Amirault's house, located on the prime mid-to-high part of the slope above Bourgueil where the soil has 1 to 2 metres of clay over Turonian limestone. After 50 years of abandonment the walls of the Clos were restored and the re-planted in 1997 by Yannick. Essentially the “garden” of Nicole and Yannick, this spectacularly well sited vineyard is lavished with the attention deserving of the very best plots. Released only in the very best vintages this wine has only been released in 2003, 2005, 2010, 2017, 2018 and 2020 with other vintages becoming part of the blend for the cuvee named Grand Clos.
2022 Grand Clos du Pavillon comprises just 2 x 450 litre barrels for a total of 1300 bottles making this the smallest production of any wines we import. After hand harvesting the grapes were de-stemmed and fermented in a small tronconic oak vat with maceration on skins for 4 weeks and aged for 24 months in the used 450 litre barrels. This vintage finishes with 13.91% alc and less than 10 mg/L of SO2 total and pH of 3.8.

2010 Bourgueil Pavillon du Grand Clos - SOLD OUT - only made in the very best vintages
'A black-tulip core with a claretty rim. The nose is determinedly concentrated, rich in fruit character, led by scents of blackberry, but delivered in a challenging, spicy and sooty style, with notes of black pepper and sweet black liquorice essence. Not to mention the Cabernet character coming through in a quite notable fashion, the fruit expressing itself through the scents of bay leaf and green peppercorn. The palate possesses a creamed-fruit texture, a velvety weight, and it is loaded with ripe and plush tannins. It boasts a massive texture but also a sense of openness and balance, with a little touch of high-toned lift to the fruit. A fabulously ripe wine, but it is bright too, and there is some aromatic complexity here, the middle and end perfumed with violets and rose petals. A serious, hugely structured wine which is brimming with tannic potential. I am glad to have a few more of these tucked away in the cellar.' 96 points, Chris Kissack, thewinedoctor.com, May 2017.

'Pavillon du Grand Clos is actually the official name of Domaine Amirault, but it also graces the label of their top bottling, which is made from their finest terroir. The vines here are still on the young side by the high standards of this domaine, but the vigor of these fifteen year-old cabernet franc vines is held in check by green harvesting and aggressive pruning. I do not have figures on how much new wood the wine is raised in, but it clearly sees some during its elevage. The 2010 Pavillon du Grand Clos is a young and outstanding bottle of Bourgueil, offering up a primary and very classy nose of dark berries, a bit of roasted meats, espresso, woodsmoke, tobacco leaf, dark soil tones, tree bark and a stylish base of new oak. On the palate the wine is deep, focused and rock solid at the core, with a very youthful personality, firm, chewy tannins and a very long, nascently complex finish that closes with superb grip and intensity of flavor. This is a great bottle of Bourgueil in the making, but it will need some time in the cellar to start to blossom. 2020-2045.' 94 points, John Gilman, View from the Cellar.