Friday, January 24, 2020

2017 Y. Amirault Bourgueil La Coudraye

My husband and I had this 2017 Y. Amirault Bourgueil La Coudraye last night with dinner. We are on a quest to understand the flavor profiles of Cabernet Franc from various regions. Bourgueil (pronounced "burr-goy") is located in the heart of the Loire Valley and so far have tried these two other expressions from the Loire Valley: We enjoyed drinking this 2017 Yannick Amirault Bourgueil La Coudraye and tasted the craftsmanship from the first sip which spoke of a Cabernet Franc grow in a cool climate with a very mild tannin influence. The color of the wine was extremely dark purple, but had a nice clarity.
I went on the Internet to find out more information about the wine and the makers and came upon this site from Four Corners European Wine Imports: Yannick Amirault, Bourgueil, Loire Valley.
On that site, I learned that Yannik Amirault took over running the vineyard in 1977 when he was twenty-two years old. He was the third generation vigneron. Their vineyards are organically certified. The grapes are harvested by hand in small buckets to prevent premature crushing and are harvested later than anyone else in the region so as to achieve maximum ripeness. The grapes are destemmed, and fermentations occur naturally in wood vats with indigenous yeasts.
The 2017 Bourgueil La Coudraye comes from 35-year-old vines growing on a 4.75-hectare vineyard of the same name. Fermentation occurred in open wood vats over four weeks and the wine was aged in old oak for six months. They are then bottled unfined and unfiltered with only a little sulphur added.

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