Le Vau Renou 2017 - Domaine Amirault

Le Vau Renou 2017 -  Domaine Amirault

Loire  - St Nicolas de Bourgeuil

Origin and Originality

Located on the hillside of Saint Nicolas de Bourgueil where the historical cellars of the Domaine are located, at the place called: Le Vau Renou. There are 2 parcels here.  One is on a limestone soil, called Tuffeau, which also constitutes the walls of the cellar. The other one, 100m further and 15m higher in altitude, is made of green clay with flint.

Conduct of the vine

On this type of soil, clay and limestone, it is important not to compact them and to avoid the erosion of these beautiful hillside soils. For this reason, the winegrowers favor natural grassing and we limit the amount of soil work. At the beginning of winter, they put shoes on the foot of the vines to protect them from winter frosts. The objective is to maintain a natural balance so that the vine does not suffer brutally from the weather (drought, heavy rain). This balance is also obtained by a small amount of "home-made" compost that receives biodynamic preparations. In the spring, thanks to the natural flora, the grass cover is balanced with the vigor of the vine in order to produce wines of great typicity. They reduce the use of "Bordeaux mixture" thanks to the association of plants (meadowsweet, nettle, yarrow, dandelion, horsetail) that they pick themselves and infuse before applying them. The vineyard is harvested by hand by them, with a first sorting on the stump, so that the fruits arrive in their cellar in perfect sanitary condition.

Vinification and Maturing

The goal is to harvest perfectly healthy grapes at optimal maturity. The harvest is destemmed and sorted a second time. They use only the indigenous yeasts of each parcel. They vinify without any input and with indigenous yeasts! 50% of the grapes are directly introduced into the 500L barrels (demi-muids) in "integral vinification" and 50% in fermenters.

After 3 to 5 weeks of "infusion", the winemakers will pour the free-run juice into Ateliers center France and Saury barrels, of 228L (25%) and 500L (50%) and in amphoras (25%). The wine will be aged for 24 to 30 months in barrels and clay amphorae at ideal temperature and hygrometry in the Vau Renou cellars.

Find the great vintages of the domain on Comptoir des Millésimes

 > Our Domaine Amirault wines in stock