Château Angelus 2020

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.

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.

60% Merlot, 40% Cabernet Franc. Cask sample. Deep purple-black colour. As in 2019, the power is inherent but with an extra edge of refinement. Ripe yet aromatically engaging with floral, dark-fruit and chocolate notes. Beautiful texture with depth of fruit, and the tannins are velvety and fresh, providing solid structure and drive on the finish. Classic Angélus with a little more precision and polish. (JL)

Everything that makes Chateau Angelus great is here in spades! The wine is almost opaque in color. In the glass, the perfume pops with its essence of black, dark red and blue fruit, smoke, licorice, flowers, espresso, chocolate and an array of spices. The wine is full-bodied, intense, silky, vibrant and concentrated with multiple layers of perfectly ripe, sweet, cashmere-textured fruits. The wine builds, expands and intensifies on your palate. The fruit offers purity and lift in the seamless finish that lingers for close to 60 seconds. Give this some time in the cellar and it will probably hit triple digits. It is that good! Drink from 2026–2060.

Dark ruby, purple reflections, discreet rim. Fresh wild berries, red currants, fine herbal spices, a touch of fine oak, floral scents including rose oil and violets with an orange zest background. Juicy red cherry fruit, peppery, textured, fresh, well-structured, a touch of tea leaves, mineral, elegant and with very good length. Certain ageing potential; a subtle Angélus, which fits wonderfully into the trilogy of recent years.

The flagship from this great estate, the 2020 Château Angelus is a blend of 60% Merlot and 40% Cabernet Franc that spent 22 months in new barrels. It’s darker and more concentrated than the 2019, offering beautiful, medium- to full-bodied aromas and flavors of redcurrants, black raspberries, sandalwood, spring flowers, and smoked tobacco. With near-flawless balance, it’s not the blockbuster style of a decade ago, but it shows gorgeous purity, ultra-fine tannins, a round, seamless mouthfeel, and a great, long finish. It’s very much in the classic, balanced, structured style of the vintage, and 7–8 years of bottle age are recommended. It will deliver 30+ years of prime drinking.

Kunz barrel sample 2021: (60% Merlot, 40% Cabernet Franc) Concentrated, velvety, complex, deep bouquet—black cherries, licorice, currants, coffee beans, dark chocolates, truffle, mint. Elegant, powerful, tightly knit palate with intense, fine, creamy fruit, plenty of fine tannins, concentrated structure, dense, varied aromatics, and a very long, powerful, dense finish with many lingering flavors. Has room to improve.

Silky, dense, deep, complex, fresh, finely opulent bouquet; black cherries, wild strawberries, mint, cinnamon, delicate dried-fruit notes, dark pralines. Powerful, dense, massive palate with dark, creamy fruit, lots of fine tannins, focused, superb aromatics, a finely muscular, concentrated structure, and a very long, explosive finish with plenty of lingering nuances. Can still improve. 19/20 2028 - 2060

This is a vintage at Angélus that grips from the first moment and expands across the palate, slowly opening and building layers of concentrated, ripe autumnal fruits of fig and blackberry, with crayon, slate, cocoa bean, chocolate cake, orange zest, smoked caramel. The floral expression of Cabernet Franc comes in with white pepper spice and gorgeous depth of flavour. Plenty of Angélus exuberance if you give it time, with fresh acidity that lifts towards the finish. There is a tiny slice of Petit Verdot in this wine, but such a small amount that it isn’t recorded as part of the blend. Aged in a mix of oak barrels and larger oak casks, 100% new oak. This continues to be bottled as Premier Grand Cru Classé A until the 2022 vintage, following its withdrawal from the ranking.

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.

93-94

On the nose, nature reigns: savoury and floral notes emerge, along with aromas of fresh red fruits and the coolness of a northern forest. All the forest’s sounds are there: birdsong, the rustling of leaves in the wind… A complete wine that commands your full attention, compelling you to notice every detail. Astonishing grace and finesse that linger on a long, saline, and flavorful finish.

This wine underwent 22 months of ageing. It was bottled on September 3, 2022. Dark, intense, beautiful colour. Highly aromatic nose, delicate, fruity, pure and complex. Precise on the attack, very aromatic mid-palate, the wine unfolds with a silkier touch than usual, a melting core, plenty of flavour and an overall graceful character. Long, sappy and subtle finish. This is an Angélus already too good to spit out.

Purity. That’s the word that comes to mind when you dip your nose into Angélus 2020. Aromatic purity, stretched between fresh fruit and floral delicacy. Purity of substance, perfectly velvety, built on al dente ripeness. Purity of a virtuosic architecture between powdery tannins, silky texture and refreshing tension. We are clearly in the presence of a model of balance. Sanguine, sapid, mouthwatering, and always dressed in its usual soft velvet suit, Angélus finds its benchmarks, its style, and stands out as one of the leading wines of this vintage.

97–99. Barrel Sample. 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.