Yannick Amirault, 2020 St-Nicolas-de-Bourgueil ‘Les Malgagnes’ Amphore
Domaine Yannick Amirault is one of the elite producers in Bourgueil and St-Nicolas-de-Bourgueil. Today, Yannick, and now Yannick's son Benoit, continue the devoted work of the land that Benoit's great grandfather Eugene start back in the 1930s. When Eugène established his domaine, it was a polyculture estate, a very Ligérian thing to do, so along with vines, he had fruit trees, asparagus, livestock, etc.
Yannick was very much influenced by his grandfather's philosophy as it relates to viticulture and working the land as respectfully and holistically as possible, and when Yannick started out on his own in 1977, it didn't take long for him to abandon chemical and synthetic treatments, and slowly work towards organics in the vineyard and a very traditional approach in the cellar.
Today the estate has vines in both the St-Nicolas-de-Bourgueil and Bourgueil appellations, totalling about 20ha. But it was Les Malgagnes that started it all. Eugène planted his first block here in 1936, and the first bottling came in 1947. And when Yannick launched his own domaine, he began with the same parcels of vines from Les Malgagnes that belonged to his grandfather, and slowly grew the estate from there.
Now, there are a few things that distinguish St-Nicolas-de-Bourgueil from Bourgueil in terms of terroirs, but one of the most important things to note has to do with the viticultural area and the soils. So just past the village of Bourgueil, the Loire River takes a bit of a dog leg, and the ancient alluvial terrace that we find in the Bourgueil AOP actually gets a bit wider. So this area of ancient alluvium actually accounts for 65% of the vineyard area in the appellation. And as this terrace widens, the area of vineyards that are on the recent alluvium as well as the côte, where we find the tuffeau-chalk dominated soils, these two areas narrow quite a bit.
The lieu-dit of Les Malgagnes is located on the slope in St-Nicolas-de-Bourgueil, and there's some things we should note about the côte. As mentioned, this sloped area in St-Nicolas-de-Bourgueil is quite narrow and it narrows further as you move from east to west, from about 500m wide just west the boundary of the Bourgueil AOP, to only about 200m wide just past the hamlet of La Gardière. At elevations of around 60 to 67m above sea level is where we find the tuffeau chalk derived soils, and there is only the Middle Turonian tuffeau chalk on the slope in St-Nicolas-de-Bourgueil, which is the glauconitic-micaceous chalk, whereas we find both the Middle turonian tuffeau, and the Upper turonian yellow tuffeau in Bourgueil. Finally, the topsoils is much more dominated by sand and silty-sand, as opposed to clay.
Now, honing in a bit further on Les Malgagnes itself, this lieu-dit is a fair size, about 14ha, and it has long been considered one of the top "premier-cru" level sites in St-Nicolas-de-Bourgueil. And from what I can tell, for good reason! It is in a very special part of St-Nicolas-de-Bourgueil. It is in the eastern most part of the appellation, only about 350m from the western boundary of the Bourgueil commune, and this is indeed where we find the widest band of tuffeau chalk derived soils. What's more, it we actually find a higher proportion of clay here in the topsoils as well.
Yannick Amirault has 3ha here in Les Malgagnes, which they've parcelled into two distinct plots, and one plot of about 2ha is what is allocated for the Les Malgagnes single lieu-dit bottling, but they use only a precise selection from these 2ha, so the Les Malgagnes in most vintages will only be coming from about 1 to 1.5ha of vines in total. The selection for this cuvée is coming from the upper portion of their parcel, the middle of the slope, and we are on the middle Turonian tuffeau chalk, with a more clay in the topsoil. There were four plantations of vines in their parcels, 1936, 1973, 1980 and 1998.
From a winemaking perspective, there's a few important things to note about this wine right off the top. In some vintages, Benoit will make two bottlings of Les Malgagnes, one he refers to as "classique" and one that the “amphore” bottling. The winemaking is the same for these cuvées, until it comes time for bottling. So the fruit is all hand-harvested, destemmed, fermented whole berry with indigenous yeast in conical wooden vats. Maceration on skins for about 3 weeks, with some punch downs at the begin of the fermentation, with very light pump-overs after that. The wine is drained off its skins, and no press wine is used in the final cuvée. Aging is brief in order to maintain the freshness of the fruit, so it is only about 12 months, 1/3 in oak barrels half of which are new, 1/3 in small conical wooden tanks, and 1/3 in amphora. In most vintages, the selection for the Les Malgagnes Amphore is made just before bottling, when Benoit will taste through the amphorae and make a selection to make a separate bottling .
But, there is something unique to note about the 2020 vintage of the Amphore bottling. Benoit shared that when they were harvesting, the fruit from the 5 rows of the vines planted in 1998 was so superb in quality, they chose to make a separate vinification and élevage for these grapes. The winemaking was the same, and the aging was all done in amphora, and no wood for the aging.
Key wine wine facts below:
Producer: Yannick Amirault
Appellation: St-Nicolas-de-Bourgueil
Commune: St-Nicolas-de-Bourgueil
Lieux-Dits: Les Malgagnes
Soils: Sandy-silty clay (limon-sablo-argileux) over the Middle Turonian tuffeau chalk
Alcohol: 14.0%
