Five Minutes with… Benoît Amirault of Domaine Yannick Amirault
A conversation with one of Bourgueil's leading producers on fruit, generosity, and what makes Cabernet Franc so hard to get right.
A trip to the Loire Valley isn’t complete without a visit with Benoît Amirault of Domaine Yannick Amirault. I have long been a lover and admirer of the wines from this domaine. Their Côte 50 from Bourgueil has had regular stints as my “house wine” and their Les Malgagnes from St-Nicolas-de-Bourgueil remains one of my all-time favourite age-worthy examples from the appellation.
For more than 20 vintages, Benoît Amirault has been shaping the domaine's direction building on the important groundwork laid by his father, Yannick, in the 1980s and 90s. Founded in Saint-Nicolas-de-Bourgueil, the estate now spans 20 hectares across the two appellations, and Benoît brings precision and thoughtfulness to his work, and a near-obsessive focus on highlighting the fruit character in Cabernet Franc - a common thread that weaves its way through their entire range of wines.
We had some extra time to catch up on my last visit to the domaine, and what follows is a short, candid conversation about terroir, technique, and one producer's singular pursuit to craft Cabernet Franc that speaks of grape and place.
CFC: The origins of the domaine are in Saint-Nicolas-de-Bourgueil, but you also have parcels in Bourgueil. For someone unfamiliar with the differences between the two appellations, what are the key characteristics that distinguish them?
BA: Saint-Nicolas-de-Bourgueil is a single-village appellation - there is only one village producing these wines, so it's a bit more homogeneous. Bourgueil, on the other hand, covers seven villages, which makes it more fragmented and more varied in terms of soil type and climate. Even though they are neighbouring appellations, there are real subtleties and genuine variations in temperature and in grape ripening. For example, the further east you go, the later the harvest. So naturally, you'll find a slightly wider variety of wine styles in Bourgueil than in Saint-Nicolas-de-Bourgueil.
CFC: Among the domaine's wines, Côte 50 and La Source are the most approachable being the estate’s early-drinking cuvées. How would you describe the differences between them?
BA: La Source comes from gravelly soils that ripen very early in Saint-Nicolas-de-Bourgueil. It makes a very playful, lively, easy-drinking style. A very approachable wine. Côte 50 is its equivalent in Bourgueil, named for the band of sand and gravel sitting at 50 metres elevation above the Loire River. We're still talking about soils that produce grapes that ripen quite easily, but with a little more character in the Côte 50. There's more variability, more subtle nuance across the parcels. It's a touch richer and more complex in terms of the soils.
CFC: You’ve now completed more than twenty vintages at the domaine. If you could offer one piece of advice to a winemaker working with Cabernet Franc in another region of the world, in the vineyard or in the cellar, what would it be?
BA: It’s very difficult to give advice on making Cabernet Franc, because every year we ask ourselves the same questions. What I’m always looking for in my wines is fruit because for me, that’s the hardest thing to achieve, and the hardest thing to preserve, right through to when the bottle is opened and the wine is in the glass. Cabernet Franc can be a little austere, a little closed, so making wines that are open and fruit-forward that is the greatest challenge. It’s difficult to give specific advice on winemaking or in the vineyard because we’re no better than anyone else.
CFC: And yet I think you’ve succeeded with that openness of fruit. Is there something specific - extraction levels, work with sulphur - that helps you achieve it?
BA: What helps us is having grapes that are ripe. We aim for consistent, thorough ripeness. Hand-harvesting isn’t everything, but it’s a small advantage in minimizing the varietal character of Cabernet Franc. We’ll have Cabernet Franc’s DNA no matter what we do - we’re in the Loire, in a temperate climate, so those varietal notes will always be present to some degree. But to capture the fruit, we minimize extraction, starting with ripe grapes, and allow a relatively long maceration. We also work with very little sulphur, none at harvest, for example. And in the life of the wine, fruit is volatile, it can slip away. So, we rack as little as possible, and we’re very precise about oxygen exposure during aging. Anything that’s lost, you won’t get back.
CFC: Is there a Cabernet Franc from outside your own cellar, from another domaine in Bourgueil or elsewhere in the Loire, that you’ve tasted recently and really loved?
BA: There are things that interest me greatly. I have colleagues with a very different approach to Cabernet Franc than mine. I love young Cabernet Franc, especially when it’s fruit-forward, and honestly, I’m not a great lover of old wines. But I’ve been pleasantly surprised sometimes by older vintages from colleagues, where they’ve produced something enduring and timeless.
CFC: A particular wine or specific domaine?
BA: Les Frères Gambier, for example.
CFC: Last question: if you could describe Cabernet Franc in three words - words that speak to the sensibility of this grape, its identity - what would those three words be for you?
BA: Vibrancy. And definitely fruit, because I’m obsessed with it. And then a certain generosity. Generosity in the substance of the wine and in the way it’s enjoyed, its drinkability. These are vibrant, fruity, generous wines. Not powerful, but... they give something.
CFC: And I find that generosity of spirit in all the wines of the domaine. And I think that’s a wonderful word to end on. Thank you so much for your time. This was a real pleasure. Santé!
For more on the wines from Domaine Yannick Amirault, check out some of the below posts:
