Domaine Xaiver et Agnès Amirault, 2019 St-Nicolas-de-Bourgueil “Les Gravilices”
The estate was established in the 1830s by Octave Amirault when he purchased his first parcels in St-Nicolas-de-Bourgueil. Today, the domaine is being run by Xavier Amirault and his wife Agnès. They farm 34 hectares of vines in primarily St-Nicolas-de-Bourgueil, with some recently acquired parcels in Bourgueil. Their vineyards are all certified organic since 2008 and biodynamic since 2011. The estate makes a diverse range of Cabernet Francs, some employ the philosophy of assemblage, or blending, such as Les Gravilices, while others are cuvées parcellaires, that is to say that the fruit is coming from a single lieu-dit.
Now most references will lump the Bourgueil and St-Nicolas-de-Bourgueil AOPs together has having the same terroir. Now if we took a birds eye view, there are similarities for sure, but the beauty here is in the details. The appellation of Bourgueil stretches nearly 15km from east to west across 7 communes, and is comprised wide diversity of vineyard aspects, elevations and soils.
The appellation of St-Nicolas-de-Bourgueil encompasses one village, that of St-Nicolas-de-Bourgueil, which begins at the western border of the Bourgueil commune and stretches west about 6km, and there are a few key things to note about the viticultural area and soils in this appellation.
Firstly, how St-Nicolas-de-Bourgueil is positioned along the Loire as it starts to dogleg toward Saumur means the appellation as a whole has almost a slightly south-southwest west exposure, as well as it's proximity to the beginning of the Vienne tributary means that St-Nicolas-de-Bourgueil is a little bit warmer than the Bourgueil AOP - in fact harvest here will start sometimes up to 10 days ahead of Bourgueil.
Also, because of how the Loire changes course ever so slightly, and the ancient alluvial terrace that begins in the commune of Restigné and continues west across 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. 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.
Naturally this ancient alluvial terrace has some important features. It ranges about 1.5 to 2.5km from north to south, and stretches the wide of the commune itself. It is at its narrowest point in the eastern part of the commune, and it gets progressively wider as you move west. The ancient alluvial terraces also has a very, long, gradual slope, rising from about 40m above sea level to about 55m above sea level at the base of the côte.
In terms of soils, we can loosely divide this terrace into 3 main areas. Across the entire alluvial terrace, the topsoils are deep and are comprised of predominantly sand, but where things get more complex is when we examine the stoniness of the topsoil as well as the subsoil.
At the southern most end of the terrace, we find a narrow band vineyards that are flanked on either side of the D35, which is quite stony or gravelly, about 50 to 100% stones in the topsoil. And this is then followed by a subsoil that is also comprised of gravels. These vineyards will have some key traits in terms of viticulture: these sites will be very well draining, with lower water reserves, which depending on the age of the vines can mean the risk of drought stress in drier years, also, these sites will be warmer and earlier.
Then in the middle of the terrace, we find a large swath of vineyards which stretches about a 1km from north to south, that has virtually no stones in the topsoil, and deep subsoil of hydromorphic sands. These sites are a little less free draining, so they have more water holding capacity, and thus could potentially produce higher yields, and be more vigourous. These soils are a little cooler as well.
Finally, towards the northern of the terrace, closest to the base of the côte, we find again more gravels in the sandy topsoil, but not quite as stony as the base of the terrace, and a subsoil of gravels or sand depending on where you are. In terms of viticultural constraints, such as vigour, drainage, precocity, etc, this are tends to be kinda in between what we see at the base of terrace and the middle part of the terrace.
This wine, as the name Les Gravilices would suggest, is coming from select parcels that are on the narrow, very gravelly vein of terroirs at the base of the terrace. So, this is from about 3.7 hectares of vines from a handful of lieux-dits. The vines are on average around 30 to 45 years. There's also small portion of Cabernet Sauvignon in this cuvée as well from very old vines.
From a winemaking perspective, the fruit for this wine is all hand-harvested, hand-sorted and destemmed. The fermentation is in 45hL wooden vats, with indigenous yeast, and a fermentation is maintained temperature of about 22C. During the fermentation, Xavier and his team will do some light pump-overs once a day to ensure the cap stays wet, and the total time on skins is about 3 weeks. Once the post-fermentation maceration is complete, the team's approach with pressing is very much like one would approach whites. So they drain off the free run wine, and then make several cuts for the press wine. And then they'll blend the heart of the press with the free run wine. Aging takes place in 45hl wooden vats for about 16 months, and then the wine is aged in bottle for about 6 months prior to release.
Key wine wine facts below:
Producer: Domaine Xavier et Agnès Amirault
Appellation: St-Nicolas-de-Bourgueil
Commune: St-Nicolas-de-Bourgueil
Assemblage: Approximately 15% Cabernet Sauvignon
Lieux-Dits: multiple
Soils: Sandy topsoil with high percentage of gravels, over a gravelly subsoil
Alcohol: 13.0%
