Chateau Angelus 2020
-
Suckling
James -
Enthusiast
Wine -
Dunnuck
Jeb - Decanter
-
Parker
Robert
Product Details
Your Rating
Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
-
James Suckling
Blackberry and plum character with chocolate, too. Oyster shell. Full and very firm with a linear sensibility. Tight and powerful. Very pure fruit. Tension and energy there. Polished tannins. Some coffee bean and chocolate. Give this at least five or six years. 60% merlot and 40% cabernet franc. Try after 2028.
-
Wine Enthusiast
This wine brings together all the best elements of the vintage. It shows concentrated tannins laced with a velvety texture and a sustained intensity of black fruits. It shows a strong mineral element in the texture that gives complexity and a fine edge at the end. Obviously, it's a wine for long-term aging. Barrel Sample: 97-99
-
Jeb Dunnuck
The flagship from this great estate, the 2020 Château Angelus checks in as 60% Merlot and 40% Cabernet Franc that spent 22 months in new barrels. It’s darker and more concentrated compared to the 2019, offering beautiful, medium to full-bodied aromas and flavors of redcurrants, black raspberries, sandalwood, spring flowers, and smoked tobacco. With just about flawless balance, it's not the blockbuster style of a decade ago, but it has gorgeous purity, ultra-fine tannins, a round, seamless mouthfeel, and a great, great finish. It's very much in the classic, balanced, structured style of the vintage, and a solid 7-8 years of bottle age are recommended. It will have 30+ years of prime drinking.
-
Decanter
A deep and rich nose, but so pure, clear and clean, it smells beautiful. The aromas really shine in the glass, too, with a texture that is smooth and supple, giving and generous. A powerful wine with excellent persistence from start to finish. Extremely youthful, tense and focused into one sleek line and, although you get ripe fruit – black berries, cassis, with some gorgeous bitter orange peel nuances – there’s so much minty freshness too. Concentration but no overt heaviness, discreet power. I love the chalky, milk chocolate nuances – well built and complex with a clear backbone and long ageing potential. Brilliant winemaking on show.
-
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2020 Angélus has turned out superbly and underlines this estate's continuing shift to a more elegant, integrated style that offers a purer expression of its terroir. A blend of 60% Merlot and 40% Cabernet Franc, it unwinds in the glass with aromas of cherries, wild berries, rose petals, mint and subtle hints of licorice, followed by a medium to full-bodied, beautifully layered and vibrant palate that's deep, precise and penetrating, concluding with a mouthwateringly chalky finish.
Other Vintages
2022-
Suckling
James -
Dunnuck
Jeb -
Parker
Robert - Decanter
-
Dunnuck
Jeb - Decanter
-
Parker
Robert
-
Suckling
James -
Dunnuck
Jeb - Decanter
-
Parker
Robert
-
Parker
Robert -
Dunnuck
Jeb -
Suckling
James -
Enthusiast
Wine -
Spectator
Wine - Decanter
-
Dunnuck
Jeb -
Suckling
James -
Enthusiast
Wine - Decanter
-
Spectator
Wine -
Parker
Robert
-
Enthusiast
Wine -
Suckling
James -
Parker
Robert - Decanter
-
Dunnuck
Jeb -
Spectator
Wine
-
Suckling
James -
Parker
Robert -
Dunnuck
Jeb -
Enthusiast
Wine -
Spectator
Wine - Decanter
-
Enthusiast
Wine -
Suckling
James - Decanter
-
Spectator
Wine -
Parker
Robert
-
Enthusiast
Wine -
Parker
Robert -
Spectator
Wine -
Suckling
James
-
Suckling
James -
Parker
Robert -
Dunnuck
Jeb -
Enthusiast
Wine -
Spectator
Wine
-
Suckling
James -
Parker
Robert -
Spectator
Wine -
Enthusiast
Wine
-
Parker
Robert -
Suckling
James -
Spectator
Wine -
Enthusiast
Wine
-
Enthusiast
Wine -
Parker
Robert -
Guide
Connoisseurs' -
Spectator
Wine
-
Parker
Robert -
Spectator
Wine -
Spirits
Wine & -
Guide
Connoisseurs'
-
Dunnuck
Jeb -
Parker
Robert -
Spirits
Wine & -
Spectator
Wine -
Guide
Connoisseurs'
-
Spirits
Wine & -
Parker
Robert -
Spectator
Wine
-
Parker
Robert
- Decanter
-
Parker
Robert
-
Parker
Robert -
Spectator
Wine
-
Parker
Robert
-
Parker
Robert -
Spirits
Wine & -
Spectator
Wine
-
Parker
Robert
-
Spectator
Wine -
Parker
Robert
-
Parker
Robert -
Spectator
Wine
-
Spectator
Wine
-
Parker
Robert
-
Parker
Robert -
Spectator
Wine
The vineyard of Chateau Angélus is situated in a natural amphitheatre overlooked by the three Saint-Emilion churches. In the middle of this special site, the sounds were amplified and the angelus bells could be heard ringing in the morning, at midday and in the evening. They cadenced the working day in the vineyards and villages, calling the men and women to stop their labours for a few minutes and pray.
Less than a kilometre from the famous Saint-Emilion bell tower, situated on the much-vaunted south-facing “foot of the hill”, Angélus has been the life work of eight generations of the Boüard de Laforest family.
In the first-ever classification of Saint-Emilion wines in 1954, Chateau Angélus was a Grand Cru Classé. Already at the time, it benefitted from a solid reputation, which helped it survive the Bordeaux wine crisis of 1973 and take part in the oenological renewal of the 1980’s. This was the context in which Hubert de Boüard de Laforest, a graduate oenologist from Bordeaux University, took advantage of this marvellous wine’s illustrious past, while being resolutely turned towards the future and launched and continued to implement an ambitious, innovative policy in favour of achieving excellence in wine growing and making.
One of the world’s most classic and popular styles of red wine, Bordeaux-inspired blends have spread from their homeland in France to nearly every corner of the New World. Typically based on either Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot and supported by Cabernet Franc, Malbec and Petit Verdot, the best of these are densely hued, fragrant, full of fruit and boast a structure that begs for cellar time. Somm Secret—Blends from Bordeaux are generally earthier compared to those from the New World, which tend to be fruit-dominant.
Marked by its historic fortified village—perhaps the prettiest in all of Bordeaux, the St-Émilion appellation, along with its neighboring village of Pomerol, are leaders in quality on the Right Bank of Bordeaux. These Merlot-dominant red wines (complemented by various amounts of Cabernet Franc and/or Cabernet Sauvignon) remain some of the most admired and collected wines of the world.
St-Émilion has the longest history in wine production in Bordeaux—longer than the Left Bank—dating back to an 8th century monk named Saint Émilion who became a hermit in one of the many limestone caves scattered throughout the area.
Today St-Émilion is made up of hundreds of independent farmers dedicated to the same thing: growing Merlot and Cabernet Franc (and tiny amounts of Cabernet Sauvignon). While always roughly the same blend, the wines of St-Émilion vary considerably depending on the soil upon which they are grown—and the soils do vary considerably throughout the region.
The chateaux with the highest classification (Premier Grand Cru Classés) are on gravel-rich soils or steep, clay-limestone hillsides. There are only four given the highest rank, called Premier Grand Cru Classés A (Chateau Cheval Blanc, Ausone, Angélus, Pavie) and 14 are Premier Grand Cru Classés B. Much of the rest of the vineyards in the appellation are on flatter land where the soils are a mix of gravel, sand and alluvial matter.
Great wines from St-Émilion will be deep in color, and might have characteristics of blackberry liqueur, black raspberry, licorice, chocolate, grilled meat, earth or truffles. They will be bold, layered and lush.