Yannick Amirault, 2019 Bourgueil Rosé "Rosé d'Equinoxe"
Cab Franc du Jour #55
The estate was established in 1977 when Yannick Amirault inherited 3.4 hectares of vines from his father Eugène. Today Benoît, Yannick’s son, works alongside him, and the estate has grown to around 20 hectares with parcels in both Bourgueil and St-Nicolas-de-Bourgueil.
Today’s cuvée has a long family history. Benoît explained that his grandfather first began making this rosé, and the tradition has continued uninterrupted ever since, with the production method remaining virtually unchanged across three generations.
The Vineyard
The wine is sourced from 2 hectares of vines averaging around 35 years of age, drawn from select parcels across three lieux-dits in the Bourgueil commune: La Chopinière, Les Pins, and La Lande. All three sites are within about 500m of each other, situated roughly 6.5km north of the Loire River.
Bourgueil’s viticultural landscape divides broadly into three terroir groups: the recent alluvial soils of light, silty-sandy deposits that hug the Loire; the ancient alluvial soils concentrated in the communes of Bourgueil and Restigné; and the côte, the slopes, where tuffeau chalk-dominated soils prevail. These three lieux-dits sit at the northernmost edge of the ancient alluvial zone where it meets the base of the côte, on flat sites with deep, predominantly sandy soils. Depths here can range from 2m to upwards of 8m in places. La Chopinière carries more of a sand-clay mix, while Les Pins and La Lande are predominantly sandy before reaching the tuffeau below.
Benoît noted that these parcels are ideally suited to rosé production. They consistently yield grapes with excellent natural acidity and a very aromatic fruit profile, though maturities can be more variable across the parcels. For rosé, full phenolic ripeness matters less than it does for red wine, given that there is no maceration of skins and seeds, so that variability is not a limiting factor.
The Winemaking
It should be said that while any winery can make a rosé, making a genuinely good one requires considerable skill, something that deserves far more recognition than the casual rosé-all-day culture tends to afford it.
This rosé has been made the same way for three generations. The method is direct press. Benoît explained that Cabernet Franc generally requires full maceration to release all of its juice, and in a direct press scenario with no maceration, the right parcels are essential: specifically those that yield their juice more freely at the press, with slightly thinner skins and larger berries than average.
Fermentation follows the same approach as the reds: indigenous yeast, no added sulphur, which means the team is always navigating a fine line with oxidation and must handle the juice and fermenting wine with great care. Fermentation takes place in 300L oak barrels, predominantly neutral. The wine also goes through malolactic fermentation. Benoît is deliberate about the choice of barrel for several reasons: firstly, it contributes a degree of roundness and a sense of inherent richness even though the wine ferments completely dry; and secondly, because rosé lacks the tannins that provide structural stability in a red wine, barrel aging adds the stability needed to work with minimal sulphur additions while still giving the wine the capacity to age.
Wine Details
Producer: Yannick Amirault
Appellation: Bourgueil Rosé
Commune: Bourgueil
Lieux-Dits: La Chopinière, Les Pins, La Lande
Production method: Direct press
Soil: Deep sandy-clay and sandy soils
Alcohol: 14%