Château Angélus wines tasted from 2000 to 2019

Almost exactly one year ago, I took part in a mini-vertical of Château Angélus wines in Shanghai for the Decanter Fine Wine Encounter. Held with owner Stéphanie de Bouard-Rivoal, the masterclass covered six vintages of Angélus back to 1996, and two of second wine Carillon d’Angélus.

This week, although homebound in Bordeaux, I was able to do a more in-depth vertical of the same wine, heading back to the 2000 vintage and covering 13 different vintages right up to 2019, together with the 2018 in bottle of both Angélus and Carillon.

Scroll down to see Jane Anson’s Château Angélus tasting notes and scores

I have also included the 2001, which I tasted last week, bringing the total number in the vertical to 14.

The few gaps here can also be filled in from last year’s tasting if you are looking for a complete set of recent notes – so we have the 2011 vintage from Shanghai Encounter in the Decanter database, as well as Angélus 2014 and Angélus 1996.

This week’s vertical covered several milestone years for Angélus:

• The 2008, where Angélus set the tone of the en primeur campaign by coming out first at under €100-a-bottle amid the melting financial markets.
• The 2012, where the estate received its promotion to Premier Grand Cru Classé A in St-Emilion.
• The 2014, marking the 30th harvest for Stéphanie’s father, Hubert de Boüard, who set the Château on the path to promotion when he took over from his own father in 1984 – also the year that the new winery opened.
• The 2018, which marked the official start of conversion to organic winemaking (look for a phoenix engraving on the bottle).
• The blockbuster vintages of 2005, 2009, 2010 and 2016.

As we head towards the new St-Emilion ranking in 2022 (with all dossiers to be completed by June 2021), it’s interesting to see how Angélus sustains continual evolution.

This is an estate that moved from Grand Cru Classé in the 1950s to Premier Grand Cru Classé B in 1996 and Premier Grand Cru Classé A in 2012. It’s the only property to move through all three stages of the ranking.

We are now in the eighth generation of the de Boüard family at the property, dating back to 1782. Most recently, the family has worked with technical director Emmanuelle Fulchi, who has herself been at the property for nearly a quarter of a century, starting as a trainee in 1996.

It is clear that progress at Angélus is the result of a refusal to be put into a box.

Expansion

The rules of the St-Emilion Classification state that the land is classified, not the estate name as in the Médoc, which means expansion is more complicated. Angélus has 27ha classified as Premier Grand Cru Classé A of its more-than 45ha in total.

The expansion has focused on its second wine, Carillon d’Angélus, which now stands at 25ha due to the purchase of new plots of land in other parts of the appellation, specifically on gravel-clay soils over towards the Pomerol borders and on other parts of the limestone plateau. This was at 15ha in 2018.

There are still some grapes from the classified section of Angélus that go into Carillon, and specifically fruit from a few plots of Cabernet Franc for the 2019 vintage. However, the majority of grapes for Carillon now come from these new sectors.

Technical advances

A new cellar for Carillon d’Angélus and No.3 d’Angélus opened with the 2019 vintage.

All grapes still come only from the estate’s own (new and old) vines, but the new 6,000-square-metre winery allows for greater precision. It has inverted stainless steel vats, similar to those made famous at La Fleur de Boüard in Lalande-de-Pomerol.

Back at the main winery, amphoras and large sized 30-hectolitre oak casks have been used as part of the ageing process since 2018.

Succession

Angélus is one of the rare First Growths of Bordeaux that continues to be owned and run by an independent family who made their money through their wine. This is true also of Château Ausone.

However, as land prices in St-Emilion continue to rise, ensuring that Angélus can remain in family hands, even with inheritance taxes, becomes more and more difficult.

Since 2012, Stéphanie de Boüard has been the main shareholder of Angélus, buying out her siblings’ shares, to make it easier to hand the property down to future generations.

See Jane Anson’s Château Angélus vertical 2000 – 2019 tasting notes and scores

You may also like

Anson: Taking advantage of Bordeaux’s ‘off vintages’Anson: How to blind taste Bordeaux winesAnson: Bordeaux 2020 harvest – An insider guideAnson: Nature vs nurture in Bordeaux wine styles