Chateau Angelus St. Emilion Bordeaux Wine

Chateau Angelus with owner Hubert de Bouard

Chateau Angelus St. Emilion, Premier Grand Cru Classe A, Bordeaux wine producer profile, with wine tasting notes, wine ratings, a history of the property, information on wine making and terroir, along with wine tasting reviews. If you want to read about other important, Bordeaux Chateaux: Links to all Bordeaux Wine Producer Profiles

Chateau Angelus has one of the longer histories in the St. Emilion appellation. The de Bouard family has a long history in the region. In fact, the de Bouard family has been in Bordeaux for more than 700 years. They arrived in St. Emilion in 1782. However, even though Chateau Angelus has been around for quite a while, the chateau does not have the same track record. Compared to the current owners, Angelus is mere baby having been born in 1782. That was the year when Georges de Bouard began purchasing vineyard land in the St. Emilion area. At the time, de Bouard was a Jurat, and a member of the Jurade of St. Emilion

Skipping ahead a few hundred years, Catherine de Bouard de Laforest began living at a St. Emilion property known as Chateau Mazerat at the close of the 18th century. The addition of 13 hectares of prime vineyard land acquired by Maurice de Bouard de La Forest further increased their holdings. Maurice de Bouard de La Forest continued adding more vineyard land and was soon referring to the property as Clos de L’Angelus. Over the years, more vines were added to the vineyard.

Angelus earned its name from a common, everyday event. On a daily basis, the people working their Bordeaux vineyards heard the sound of the bells from three local churches. That sound inspired the now famous name of the chateau as well as the logo and the sculpture of the logo that appears in the backyard of the property.

Chateau Angelus is still owned by the de Bouard family. In fact, since 1989, Angelus is considered one of the top estates in the entire Right Bank appellation. Hubert de Bouard is currently in charge of managing the family directed property. Today, all the children participate in running the estate. Prior to his tenure, the truth is, the property was not making wines as good as their terroir allowed. The estate had a reputation for having made great wines in the 1950′s. But by the 1960′s, the quality of wine being produced at the St. Emilion had slipped.

Hubert de Bouard joined the family business at Chateau Angelus after graduating from Bordeaux University, where he studied under the famed Professor Emily Peynaud. It took a while before things began turning around for Chateau Angelus. In years like 1982 and 1985, when the materials were there to make great wine, like many St. Emilion estates, Chateau Angelus under-performed.

Starting with the 1988 vintage, Hubert began rapidly turning things around at Angelus. He was one of the first Bordeaux wine makers to embrace fermenting in open top vats and conducting malolactic in small barrels. To improve the wines, de Bouard lowered yields, increased selection and began aging the wines in new oak barrels. de Bouard, a former pupil of Emile Peynaud insists he is making Bordeaux wine at Angelus the way it was made during the 1950′s, but with a modern twist.

Shortly after de Bouard began running the property, he instituted another change. He changed the name from L’Angelus to Angelus. He said, “This allows the wine to show up first in alphabetized lists.” He was right!

The vineyards of Chateau Angelus cover 34 hectares. 27 of those hectares are classified with First Growth status. The vines are planted on two unique types of soil. Clay with limestone and clay with sand and limestone that is located on the sloping hillsides. The Bordeaux wine vineyard is planted to 50% Merlot and 47% Cabernet Franc with 3% Cabernet Sauvignon. The vines average close to 38 years of age. The estate has old vines dating all the way back to 1918. While the oldest vines are Merlot, the estate has 10 hectares of Cabernet Franc that are more than 60 years of age. The vineyard is planted to a vine density that ranges from 6,500 to 8,000 plants per hectare. Newer plantings are the higher level of density.

The vines are pruned using “Girondine” method, which leaves two canes. Vineyard practices remain traditional. Some rows are seeded with grass to reduce water. Serious vineyard management techniques are practiced including debudding, followed by crop thinning in the summer and green harvesting.

The vine canopies allow the leafs to gain maximum sun exposure. The fruit is hand picked and sorted three times. In the vineyard, again after it’s been destemmed and a final time at the winery. Starting with the 2009 vintage, Hubert de Bouard’s pursuit to obtain the finest possible Bordeaux wine inspired him to add a line of 60 people to manually destem berry by berry. Hubert believes manual destemming helps the berries remain intact. It’s amazing watching two rows of destemmers, each 30 deep in people, working on the fruit, one berry at a time.

Hubert de Bouard said, “Manual destemming helps the berries remain intact, while retarding oxygenation and retaining freshness”. Bouard used this method for 20% of the 2009 crop.   In 2010, they employed 150 workers to manually destem the grapes. With the additional workers, they came close to hand destemming half their crop! For storing, they were one of the first St. Emilion estates to embrace optical sorting technoloogy. To ensure only the top grapes are used, an additional hand sorting takes place after the fruit is put through the optical sorter.

To make the wine, the process starts with cold maceration that is seldom more than 5 days. Fermentation takes place in a combination of 21 temperature controlled vats. There are 7 stainless steel vats, concrete and open top, oak vats. Each vat is 70 hectoliters. Everything in the cellar moves by gravity flow. After Malolactic fermentation in barrel is completed, the wine is aged in 100% new, French oak barrels for between 18-24 months. The length of time depends on the vintage and its characteristics.

On average, there are 7,000 cases of Chateau produced every vintage. The estate also produces a second Bordeaux wine, Le Carillon de l’Angelus. Starting in 2007, Chateau Angelus introduced a third wine, Number 3 d’Angelus. Productions is small with close to 800 cases per vintage. The de Bouard family own other estates in the Right Bank including Chateau Bellevue in St. Emilion, La Fleur de Bouard in Lalande de Pomerol and Chateau de-Francs in Cotes de Francs. Hubert de Bouard consults numerous chateaux in the Medoc, Pessac Leognan, St. Emilion and Pomerol. In June, 2012, Stéphanie de Boüard-Rivoal, the daughter of Hubert de Bouard was named executive manager of the estate. That same year. September 6, 2012, Chateau Angelus was upgraded in the official 2012 St. Emilion Classification to Premier Grand Cru Classe A. Only 4 St. Emilion estates share that honor.

The style of Chateau Angelus is pure silk and velvet. It’s a rich, full bodied and concentrated, Bordeaux wine, offering silky textures that’s filled with luscious, opulent, spicy dark fruit, licorice, spice and truffle that ages well.

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