Went to a great concert at the Queen Elizabeth Hall on London’s South Bank last night. Part of the London Jazz Festival, it starred Joanna McGregor, the amazing Dhafer Youssef, Satoshi Takeishi and the Britten Sinfonia. Dhafer’s voice and range were particularly amazing.

Stéphane Cossais: August 2008

Afterwards we headed off for a couple of courses at the nearby RSJ Restaurant, where I do some consultancy mainly running the tastings and going to the Loire on buying trips. We started with a bottle of Stéphane Cossais 2005 Le Volagré Montlouis – a delicious combination of richness and minerality with a trace of vanilla showing initially. We also enjoyed the quite gamy, sous-bois 2005 Les Mines Saint-Nicolas-de-Bourgueil from Yannick Amirault. The RSJ kitchen was certainly on-form: my salmon fishcakes followed by duck confit were very good.

Yannick Amirault: late January 2008

Sites:
Yannick Amirault

RSJ News (blog)

RSJ Restaurant

London Jazz Festival

2008: Harvesting Cabernet Franc:
photo Yannick Amirault

From: Yannick Amirault, Bourgueil and Saint Nicolas-de-Bourgeuil:

'Effectivement les vendanges se sont très bien passées. Nous avons eu un temps magnifique et le raisin était super.

Début octobre, j'étais inquiet par les acidités très élevées mais qui ont bien baissé à la récolte.
Si on prend uniquement en considération les courbes de degré et d'acidité, nous sommes sur des courbes proches de 1996 et 2002.'

Désormais les fermentations sont terminées et je laisse encore "infuser" sous marc une semaine avant tirage.

Yannick and his son 'unloading' Cabernet Franc
photo Yannick Amirault

Certainly the vintage went very well. We had magnificent weather and the grapes are superb.

At the beginning of October I was worried by the grapes' high acidity but they had dropped considerably by the time we harvested. If you look just at the graphs of alcohol and acidity, we are close to those of 1996 and 2002.

The alcoholic fermentations have finished and I am leaving the wine to 'infuse' on the skins for a week before drawing the wine off.