A Visit to Yannick Amirault, 2016: Tasting Notes
The tasting was a seemingly haphazard affair, as we jumped from one vintage to another, one lieu-dit to the next. We started off in the most recent vintage, beginning with the delightful 2015 La Coudraye, from the vines at the level of the cellars, on sandy soils. This is already in bottle, and is quite delicious, showing the quality of the vintage. This was followed by the amphora version of the 2015 Les Malgagnes, drawn direct from the vessel, a precarious operation involving a stepladder, a hosepipe and several glasses, and I imagine Benoît wished he had three hands. It has an interesting dusty character, and although I am not really sold on the benefits of amphorae in élevage this wine certainly had good potential. I look forward to seeing it in bottle, and future side-by-side comparisons with the ‘standard’ 2015 Les Malgagnes. As for the 2015 La Mine, from a clay terroir, this also shows delicious substance, 2015 clearly a great vintage for Loire Valley Cabernet Franc.
Then we went back to some older vintages, first to the 2013 Le Grand Clos, which showed the pedigree of the terroir, but also the weakness of the vintage. For the vintage it is an impressive result, but I would certainly prefer to wait for the 2014 and 2015 vintages to come along. Thereafter we continued with a focus on limestone in the 2014 vintage, looking at Les Quartiers, Les Malgagnes and then La Petite Cave, the latter two just slightly superior to the first of the trio, but all worthy of a slot in any cellar.
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