The de Bouard family arrived in St. Emilion in 1910 and in 1922 Elisabeth Bouchet, the second wife of Maurice de Bouard de La Forest purchased a 3.5-hectare parcel of vines known as Clos L’Angelus and the estate was born.
Chateau Angelus is named after the 3 Angelus bells from 3 local churches that could be heard from the vineyards. That is why the chateau’s logo has a bell on the label
Chateau Angelus is still owned by the de Bouard family. In 1988, Hubert de Bouard took over management of the winery and began making many changes to improve the winery. On the marketing front, he changed the name from L’Angelus to Angelus, which allowed the wine to show up first in alphabetized lists. He also negotiated the wine’s association with the James Bond movies.
Hubert also began fermenting in open-top vats and conducting malolactic fermentation in small barrels, fermenting with whole berries, aging on the lees, harvesting & vinifying on a parcel by parcel basis. lowering yields, increasing the leaf canopies and improving the drainage system. A lot of wineries do this today but in 1988, it was revolutionary.
In 2012, Angelus was upgraded to Premier Grand Cru Classe in the St. Emilion classification system. In the same year, Stephanie de Bouard-Rivoal, the daughter of Hubert de Bouard was named executive manager of the estate. To celebrate the upgrade in the classification, the label of the 2012 vintage is black colored label that was embossed with a 21.7-carat gold imprinted script.
In 2022, Angelus announced that the winery, along with Cheval Blanc, Ausone and La Gaffeliere, would no longer take part in the classification system so starting with the 2022 vintage, Chateau Angelus will no longer state Premier Cru Classe A on the label.
The vineyard is 39-hectare in size and is planted with 50% Merlot, 47% Cabernet Franc and 3% Cabernet Sauvignon. The original French name of Cabernet Franc was Bouchet, the maiden name of Elisabeth Bouchet, the grandmother of Hubert de Bouard. The vines average close to 38 years of age. Of their 39 hectares of vineyeard, only 27 hectares are classified with First Growth status. These vineyards are used to produce Chateau Angelus. The remaining 12 hectares of vines are used for Le Carillon de l’Angelus (their 2nd wine) and also their 3rd wine
In 2018, Chateau Angelus moved to 100% organic farming and they were certified organic in 2021.
The wine is aged in 100% new, French oak barrels for between 18-24 months. On average, there are 8,500 cases of Chateau Angelus produced every vintage.
The blend of 1989 vintage was 60% Merlot and 40% Cabernet Franc. IMHO, one of the best vintages of Angelus ever produced.
For more information about the winery, please see their website at https://www.angelus.com/en/
3 Comments
I believe in you. It must be a really perfect wine!
Great bottle of juice! It’s so awesome you have those aged Grand Cru Classe in such classic vintages. My oldest vintage of classified Bordeaux’s I have cellared is the 2005 vintage. I see people saying they’re showing nicely now. From there I bump all the way up to 2015. Some more patience required with those.
i am just getting started in Bordeaux and i am going to total wine later can you recommend 6 Bordeaux wine you recommend between 50-100 3rd growth – 5th growth … i prefer napa cabs on the boulder more complex side with higher alc content… Also just curious when you open your bottles do you finish the same day or do you recork and for how long?