CHATEAU ANGELUS 1er Grand Cru Classe A, Saint-Emilion 2022 Bottle
Red Still Wine | France | Bordeaux | Saint-Émilion | 75cl
£395.00
ABV: 14.5%
Size: 75cl
Closure Type: Cork
Country: France
Region: Bordeaux
Sub-Region: Saint-Émilion
Wine Style: Medium Bodied
Grapes: Merlot, Cabernet Franc
Description
The 2022 Château Angélus is a remarkable Bordeaux that exemplifies elegance and power, receiving high praise including 100 points from Decanter and 99 points from James Suckling. On the nose, it showcases vibrant aromas of black and blue fruits, alongside floral notes, liquorice, and spices like cinnamon and vanilla. The palate is full-bodied yet precise, with firm, silky tannins that highlight its structured finesse. This vintage displays incredible depth, with layers of dark berries, cherries, and subtle herbal nuances. Decanter notes its balance and vibrant energy, while Vinous highlights its minerality and persistent finish. Wine Enthusiast commends its floral profile, making it an exceptional choice for long-term aging, promising to evolve beautifully from 2028 to 2050.
*****
DECANTER 100 points !!!
Tasted by: Georgie Hindle
(at Bordeaux, 15 Dec 2024)
Part of The best St-Emilion 2022 in bottle
Drinking Window: 2028 - 2050
A vintage of precision and aromatic purity, this is one of the finest Angélus wines ever made. A blend of 60% Merlot, 40% Cabernet Franc, the nose is heady and complex, filled with dark chocolate, cherries, blackcurrants, violets, and rose. On the palate, it’s silky, scintillating, and fresh, with a crystalline clarity and balance that feels almost effortless. Chalky yet creamy tannins add depth, while flashes of heat and liquorice spice on the finish bring structure and length. Juicy, deep, and incredibly moreish, this dances across the palate with finesse and vibrancy. A wine of energy, persistence, and sheer sophistication. 100% new oak (50% Cab Franc in foudre). 3.7 pH. 75 IPT. Organic.
JAMES SUCKLING 99 points
This is a powerful Angelus, showing incredible depth and intensity as well as tannins that are totally melted into the wine, giving incredible energy for such a young bottle. It makes me think of the great reds of the 1940s or 1950s but with modern precision. Full-bodied but agile, this has endless length, the blackberries and crushed stones, light herbs and dark chocolate showing throughout. Such balance. Al dente. 60% merlot and 40% cabernet franc. So attractive now but will age forever.
THE WINE ADVOCATE 97+ points
Reviewed by: William Kelley
Drink Date: 2030 - 2055
The 2022 Angélus has turned out beautifully in bottle, reflecting the estate's shift toward a livelier, more integrated style. Wafting from the glass with aromas of sweet cherries, blackberries and mulberries mingled with rose petals and violets, it's full-bodied, velvety and concentrated, with a deep, enveloping core of succulent fruit, integrated tannins and a long, perfumed finish. It was bottled in the last week of July 2024.
Published: Mar 06, 2025
VINOUS 97 points
Drinking Window 2028 - 2050
From: A Place Beyond Praise: Bordeaux 2022 (Feb 2025)
The 2022 Angélus is still very contained on the nose, therefore, for this sample, I transferred the wine several times between two glasses in order to pry it open. It has a delineated and tensile bouquet, with blackberry, briar and light marine scents percolating through with time. Hints of oyster shell emerge from the limestone soils. The palate is medium-bodied, fresh and saline, with gentle grip, fine tannins and a poised, persistent finish. There is a linearity to this Angélus that I appreciate due to the 40% Cabernet Franc. It’s very minerally on the aftertaste. This is an excellent Angélus that will age perhaps more slowly than its peers. - By Neal Martin on January 2025
WINE ENTHUSIAST 97 points
96-98 Barrel sample. This is a beautifully floral wine featuring ripe black fruits and delicious acidity. It is structured with polished tannins that are deceptively soft, but still offer texture and the ripest blackberry flavors. It is a great wine for long-term aging. — Roger Voss
JANCIS ROBINSON 17.5+points
Purple-black hue. Dense, dark and spicy. Beautifully textured, the tannins ripe and smooth. Plenty of lift and no exaggeration. Firm, long and crunchy on the finish. Substantial but measured. (JL)
A Deeper Dive;
Chateau Angélus
Nestled in the centre-west of the St Emilion appellation, Chateau Angélus spans 39 hectares and is located less than a kilometre from the renowned medieval steeple. The estate benefits from a south-facing slope that enhances grape cultivation.
On the lower sections, Cabernet Franc flourishes in sandy, warmer soils, while the upper areas are predominantly planted with Merlot, which thrives in the clay enriched with limestone. This diverse terroir, paired with the estate’s careful vineyard management, contributes to the unique and aromatic character of Angélus wines, known for their richness, structure, and remarkable ageability.
THE WINE ADVOCATE - 96-98 Points
"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." Reviewed by: William Kelly
JAMES SUCKLING - 99-99 Points
"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."
DECANTER - 96 Points
"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". Reviewed by: Georgina Hindle 04/23
Drinking Window: 2030-2050