2020 Château Angélus, St Emilion, Bordeaux

2020 Château Angélus, St Emilion, Bordeaux

Product: 20208004341
Prices start from £1,450.00 per case Buying options
2020 Château Angélus, St Emilion, Bordeaux

Buying options

Available by the case In Bond. Pricing excludes duty and VAT, which must be paid separately before delivery. Storage charges apply.
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6 x 75cl bottle
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3 x 150cl magnum
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Description

Merlot 60%, Cabernet Franc 40%

Stéphanie de Boüard-Rivoal, who heads up Ch. Angélus, describes 2020 as the synthesis of 2018 and 2019, delivering wines with purity, freshness and tension. On the nose, there’s an inviting bouquet of fresh peach and vanilla, which later gives way to plum, bread and subtle notes of cinnamon and clove. It’s lush but without being heavy. The palate is pure pleasure; graceful yet intense. The tannins give the merest brush of texture, and provide the necessary support. There is an irresistible glossy character to the fruit.

Drink 2026-2045

wine at a glance

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Critics reviews

Neal Martin, Vinous95-97/100
The 2020 Angélus was given 30–40 minutes to open. It has a very intense nose of multilayered blackberry, blueberry and wild strawberry scents, crushed violet and hints of iodine. It is quintessential Angélus in many ways, sleek and smooth, harmonious and seductive. Those qualities also come through on the palate. This is framed by fine tannins, the Cabernet components coming through strongly on the midpalate. Quite ferrous in some ways, allspice and subtle minty notes lending complexity toward the finish. It is not quite as persistent as the recently tasted 2018 from bottle, but it comes across a little more chiseled and intellectual.

Drink from 2027 to 2055

Neal Martin, Vinous (May 2021) Read more
Antonio Galloni, Vinous96-98/100
The 2020 Angélus is shaping up to be tremendous. Bright and punchy, with terrific energy, the 2020 is more linear and focused than any recent vintages I can remember tasting. Crushed red berry fruit, iron, smoke, mint, chalk and dried herbs all build in the glass. In 2020, Angélus is less flashy than it can be. That is a very good thing, for those who can wait. Harvest took place between September 18 to 30. One of the major evolutions here in recent years has been the use of foudres to age the Cabernet Franc. Half of the Franc is now raised in large format oak, and that seems to bringing added freshness to the Grand Vin.

Drink from 2025 to 2060

Antonio Galloni, Vinous (June 2021) Read more
Lisa Perrotti-Brown MW100/100
The 2020 Angelus is a blend of 60% Merlot and 40% Cabernet Franc, with the tiniest splash of Petit Verdot. It has a deep garnet-purple color and needs considerable swirling and patience to release a whole array of red and black fruit scents - kirsch, raspberry coulis, blackberry preserves and mulberries - followed by hints of violets, molten licorice, tar, sassafras, and black truffles. The medium to full-bodied palate is pure energy, featuring a firm backbone of exquisitely ripe, fine-grained tannins and compelling tension to support the very tightly knit layers, finishing very long with a whole firework display of mineral and floral sparks.

Lisa Perrotti-Brown, The Wine Independent (March 2023) Read more
Jane Anson97/100
Supple damson fruits, love the aromatics on this, and the striking fruits. Silky in texture, balanced and elegant, there are big tannins that slowly but surely creep up on you through the palate. This is a sleek, poised, and confidently-constructed Angélus, with depth to the olive, chocolate, cassis body and a crushed mint leaf kiss on the finish. As often with this vintage it is not an exuberant hug, it is more about discreet power and gorgeous stealing-up of flavours and textures giving depth and subtle power. 3.62ph, aged in large sized oak cass and oak barrels. 37hl/h yield.

Drink from 2028 to 2048

Jane Anson, Decanter (April 2021) Read more
Jancis Robinson MW18/20
60% Merlot, 40% Cabernet Franc. Cask sample. Deep purple-black colour. As in 2019 the power inherent but an extra edge of refinement. Ripe but aromatically engaging with floral, dark-fruit and chocolate notes. Beautiful texture with depth of fruit and the tannins velvety and fresh providing solid structure and drive on the finish. Classic Angelus with a little more precision and polish.

Drink from 2028 to 2045

James Lawther MW, jancisrobinson.com (April 2021) Read more
Wine Advocate98-100/100
The 2020 Angélus has an opaque purple-black color, pulling you in with a captivating perfume of kirsch, Black Forest cake, ripe plums, violets and molten licorice, followed by wafts of underbrush, raspberry leaves and graphite, plus a hint of clove oil. The medium to full-bodied palate already offers beautiful balance and expression at this nascent stage, featuring bright, crunchy red and black fruits with remarkable energy and tension. Its amazingly plush, silken texture carries all these shimmering flavors to a very long and fragrant finish. This jaw-dropping expression of 2020 is simply stunning.

Drink from 2027 to 2062

Lisa Perrotti-Brown MW, Wine Advocate (May 2021) Read more
James Suckling98-99/100
This is wonderfully refined and balanced with such pretty depth. Full-bodied and so polished and pure. Subtle at first, then it takes off and keeps coming. Sophisticated. 60% merlot and 40% cabernet franc.

James Suckling, jamessuckling.com (April 2021) Read more
Jeb Dunnuck95-97+/100
I loved the 2020 Château Angélus, which has the fresh, pure, incredible style favored by the estate today yet still has beautiful concentration and depth. Lots of ripe black cherries, mulberries, and cassis as well as violets, white flowers, tobacco, and dark chocolate define the bouquet, and it's medium to full-bodied, with a seamless, incredibly elegant mouthfeel, flawless tannins, and a great finish. While I don't think it's going to match the magical 2018, it's not far off and is unquestionably a gorgeous wine.

Jeb Dunnuck, jebdunnuck.com (May 2021) Read more

About this WINE

Château Angélus

Château Angélus

Château Angélus is one of the largest and most prestigious estates in St Emilion. It was promoted to Premier Grand Cru Classé A status in the 2012 reclassification. The de Boüard family has made wine here since 1782. The estate is now run by eighth-generation Stéphanie de Boüard-Rivoal, who took over from her father, Hubert de Boüard de Laforest, and uncle, Jean-Bernard Grenié, in 2012. It is located in centre-west of the St Emilion appellation, due west of the medieval town.

Angélus’s 39 hectares of vineyards are situated less than a kilometre away from the famous St Emilion steeple. The site enjoys a perfect southerly-exposed slope. Cabernet Franc is grown at the bottom, where the soils are sandier and warmer; Merlot is grown in the limestone-rich clay soils at the top of the slope.

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St Émilion

St Émilion

St Émilion is one of Bordeaux's largest producing appellations, producing more wine than Listrac, Moulis, St Estèphe, Pauillac, St Julien and Margaux put together. St Emilion has been producing wine for longer than the Médoc but its lack of accessibility to Bordeaux's port and market-restricted exports to mainland Europe meant the region initially did not enjoy the commercial success that funded the great châteaux of the Left Bank. 

St Émilion itself is the prettiest of Bordeaux's wine towns, perched on top of the steep limestone slopes upon which many of the region's finest vineyards are situated. However, more than half of the appellation's vineyards lie on the plain between the town and the Dordogne River on sandy, alluvial soils with a sprinkling of gravel. 

Further diversity is added by a small, complex gravel bed to the north-east of the region on the border with Pomerol.  Atypically for St Émilion, this allows Cabernet Franc and, to a lesser extent, Cabernet Sauvignon to prosper and defines the personality of the great wines such as Ch. Cheval Blanc.  

In the early 1990s there was an explosion of experimentation and evolution, leading to the rise of the garagistes, producers of deeply-concentrated wines made in very small quantities and offered at high prices.  The appellation is also surrounded by four satellite appellations, Montagne, Lussac, Puisseguin and St. Georges, which enjoy a family similarity but not the complexity of the best wines.

St Émilion was first officially classified in 1954, and is the most meritocratic classification system in Bordeaux, as it is regularly amended. The most recent revision of the classification was in 2012

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Merlot

Merlot

The most widely planted grape in Bordeaux and a grape that has been on a relentless expansion drive throughout the world in the last decade. Merlot is adaptable to most soils and is relatively simple to cultivate. It is a vigorous naturally high yielding grape that requires savage pruning - over-cropped Merlot-based wines are dilute and bland. It is also vital to pick at optimum ripeness as Merlot can quickly lose its varietal characteristics if harvested overripe.

In St.Emilion and Pomerol it withstands the moist clay rich soils far better than Cabernet grapes, and at it best produces opulently rich, plummy clarets with succulent fruitcake-like nuances. Le Pin, Pétrus and Clinet are examples of hedonistically rich Merlot wines at their very best. It also plays a key supporting role in filling out the middle palate of the Cabernet-dominated wines of the Médoc and Graves.

Merlot is now grown in virtually all wine growing countries and is particularly successful in California, Chile and Northern Italy.

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