Domaine Yannick Amirault Les Malgagnes 2003 (more fun without the air)

The name is something of a mouthful, but then so is the wine.

Yannick Amirault Les Malgagnes 2003 was the red wine I had at Le Cercle. Le Cercle's menu has individual wine recommendations for each dish, and this one seemed to go well with a large variety of food - from red meat to vegetables to monkfish - so I thought that this would be appropriate to share among 4 people.

Domaine Yannick Amirault Les Malgagnes 2003
Red wine
French (Saint Nicolas de Bourgeuil, Loire Valley)
Cabernet Franc

Nose: A little yeasty - I thought that this was corked, but there was still some fruit left that convinced me not to send this back. Red fruits, quite musty, bready and nutty once it gets to the back of the nose.
Mouthfeel: Thick and syrupy, quite slurpable.
Tasting: Gamey and leathery at first, quite oaky. Aeration brought more fruits - kiwi and raspberry overlaying lots and lots of ripe fruit.

The wine was very much more interesting before aeration. I did like the game of deciding whether or not this was corked to say the least - the bready yeasty flavours at the beginning were intriguing, and weren't unpleasant at all. That said, I was very surprised to taste that, and I contemplated asking the sommelier to have a sniff. But I'm glad I didn't, because the fruit eventually woke up. With some air in it, it became less interesting but was a very well made wine that did indeed go well with a wide variety of food. I particularly enjoyed it with my aligot and smoked chestnut soup.

Saint Nicolas de Bourgeuil is one of the 87 official appellations of wine in the Loire Valley. Bourgeuil is in the north of the Loire Valley, near the city of Tours. There are 2 official appellations here - Saint Nicolas de Bourgeuil, and Borgeuil. Both appellations are made from about 1,200 hectares of cultivation. The heat wave in France in 2003 made this one of the best vintages of recent years in the Loire, and many of the Cabernet Franc wines from the Bourgeuil region are very good.

Yannick Amirault is a well known winemaker in the Bourgeuil region. He makes several designations of red wine - Les Malgagnes, La Coudraye, La Petite Cave, Le Grand Clos, La Mine and Les Graviers, to name a few. All are Cabernet Franc wines, and stem from different corners of his vineyard. I have found the 2003 vintage available for La Coudraye and La Petite Cave, as well as Le Grand Clos. Le Grand Clos is apparently the best in the range according to reviews on the internet. If it's better than Les Malgagnes, I wholeheartedly recommend it.

This was a good wine. I've rarely encountered such good pairing of wine and food as I did at Le Cercle. It was an educational experience, and I'm really looking forward to going back and trying some of their other combinations. Maybe I'll be able to unearth another gem.