Angelus 2022 (9.0L)

98-100 WI / 98-100 WCI / 99 FS / 98-99 JS / 97-99 JD / 96-98 WA / 97 DE / 97 JA / 95-97 VM

Special bottle for the the 2022 vintage:

"Exactly ten years after the precious black and gold bottle, the bottle for the 2022 vintage once again adopts the tradition of the jeweller’s craft, with a complex technical process enabling real gold (20 carat) and mother-of-pearl to be literally printed on the glass. Struck by a blazing sun in the dead of night, set off by two ellipses that underline it and celebrate its majesty, the motifs inspired by the constellations and revolutions of the stars offer a poetic evocation of the passage from the closed world to the infinite universe, and illustrate the aspiration to magnificence that carries Château Angelus ever higher.” - Chateau Angelus

The 2022 Château Angélus is made up of 60% Merlot and 40% Cabernet Franc with a pH of 3.65. Deep garnet-purple colored, it prances out of the glass with flamboyant notes of red currant jelly, wild blueberries, cassis, and candied violets, followed by suggestions of jasmine tea, star anise, and crushed rocks. The full-bodied palate is impactful from first sip, yet slowly expands in the mouth, ultimately over-delivering on the nose's promise with layer upon layer of perfumed black and red fruits, supported by super fine-grained, silt-like tannins, finishing long and achingly shimmery. - Lisa Perrotti-Brown, Wine Independent

Deeply colored, the wine is all about its elegance in the texture. The fruits offer a level of purity and refinement that was not present in older vintages. Perfectly balanced, vibrant, long and intense, the wine is incredibly sensuous, velvety, and silky. The level of concentration remains, but the sensation here is now one of sensuality, balance, and sophistication. The silky, pure, red and black pit fruits with a cool touch of orange rind remain with you for close to 60 seconds. Fermentation at cooler temperatures and no sulfur during the fermentations helped maintain the wines elegance and purity. The wine blends 60% Merlot, and 40% Cabernet Franc, 14.5% ABV, 3.65 pH. Harvesting took place, September 6 - September 28. Drink from 2027-2060. - JL, Wine Cellar Insider

Dark ruby in colour with an opaque core, purple reflections, and subtle brightening on the rim. On the nose, an inviting bouquet of subtle sweet tobacco, a hint of herbs, fine red berry nuances, subtle nougat, and orange zest in the background. The elegant, silky palate is juicy with ripe cherry fruit, delicately spicy nuances with fine fruit, great freshness, and barely noticeable, finely polished tannins. Already very accessible, this is a delicate food wine equipped with considerable length and great ageing potential. - PM, Falstaff

So many beautiful primary fruit aromas. Al dente. Peaches. Very floral. Aromatic. Full-bodied and extremely fine tannins with length and beauty that show incredible depth. Superb brightness and reality. Exciting. Cabernet franc freshness and dynamics come through now, even though the blend is 60% merlot and 40% cabernet franc. - James Suckling

Looking at the Grand Vin, the 2022 Château Angélus is based on 53% Merlot, 46% Cabernet Franc, and 1% Petit Verdot that will spend 22 months in new French oak, with a portion of the Cabernet Franc aged in foudre. This estate doesn't put a foot wrong, and this is clearly a profound Angélus with a deep purple, almost blue hue, extraordinary notes of cassis, blueberry liqueur, acacia flowers, and scorched earth, full-bodied richness, building tannins, and a dense, concentrated mid-palate, all of which is grounded by a vibrant sense of freshness and purity. While older vintages were more closed and backward on release, this has a certain accessibility given its balance and purity, and I suspect it will offer incredible pleasure right out of the gate. It will evolve for 40+ years as well.-Jeb Dunnuck

This estate's shift in the direction of gentler extraction and more reductive, less overtly oaky élevage continues, and this extreme vintage only underlines that. Fermented at cool temperatures (20 to 23 degrees Celsius), and with an increasing proportion of the wine's Cabernet Franc component matured in large wooden foudres, the 2022 Angélus wafts from the glass with deep aromas of dark berries and cherries mingled with hints of iris, licorice and pencil lead. Full-bodied, deep and seamless, with a layered core of cool, vibrant fruit, powdery tannins and a long, saline finish, it's a brilliant young wine in the making. The 2022 is a blend of 53% Merlot, 46% Cabernet Franc and 1% Petit Verdot. - William Kelley, Wine Advocate

An excellently constructed and impressive Angélus in 2022 with power, focus and detail. Aromatically expressive; a burst of black and blue fruits on the nose, gorgeous floral scents, liquorice, graphite, damson, juniper berries, dark chocolate, vanilla and cinnamon. Straight and sleek, almost sharp red and blue berries marry with a slate minerality edging the tannins that makes the texture quite firm and mouthcoating but so precise with a playful juiciness on the mid palate and overall appealing coolness. Lovely clarity and layering of flavour, some strictness coming from the Cabernet Franc at this point, but there’s such class, finesse and precision on show. One for the long haul and will reward cellaring. Unlike in 2020 which took three days to harvest Merlot, 2022 took them two weeks, finishing with Cabernet Franc at the beginning of October. No press wine in the grand vin. - GH, Decanter

Precision and freshness here, with fennel, aniseed, marzipan, cassis, incense, cigar, black cherry, mint leaf and ink, with a slow build of subtle aromatics, and a cooling uplift on the finish. An exceptional wine that will reward long ageing, but captures the luscious, exuberant quality of the vintage without ever stepping over the line. 100% new oak for the barrels, with 20% of the production (Cabernet Franc only) to be aged in larger oak casks. Organic farming (with their own farm growing produce for their restaurants and for vineyard treatments). This vintage also shows one of the benefits of leaving the classification, which has become official as of 2022 - the de Boüard family is able to expand the footprint for the main wine of Angélus this year with 3ha of Château Bellevue (which has now been officially split and passed entirely back into the hands of the co-owners the de Lavaud family), which brings some cool soil Merlot into the blend. Harvest September 6 to 28. - Jane Anson, Inside Bordeaux

The 2022 Angélus was cropped at 40hL/ha. It is aged partly in foudres (around half the Cabernet Franc, to be exact) and the remainder in new barrels, the Grand Vin with 14.45% alcohol and 3.65 pH. This takes a few minutes to unfold in the glass. Blackberry, iris petals and crushed stone notes are focused and delineated. There's opulence locked into these aromatics, but that is contained. The palate is medium-bodied with a mineral opening. Graphite and fresh tobacco thread through the layered black fruit, perhaps spicier than recent vintages. A gentle grip on the finish has some wood tannins to resolve, which should be addressed during its élevage. This will need several years in bottle, probably a decade; then I envisage this Saint-Émilion soaring. -- Neal Martin, Vinous Media