Château Angélus Saint-Émilion 2016

Hands down, one of our favorite all-time estates in Bordeaux to visit is Château Angélus in St. Emilion. Literally everything this 8th generation family does is at such an impeccable level, making this wine an incredible value for such a high pedigree. Wines have been crafted here by the Laforest family and their heirs since 1782. The estate has been farming organically for decades and also has been certified organic since 2021. 

The vineyard of Château Angélus is situated in a natural amphitheatre overlooked by the three Saint-Emilion churches. In the middle of this special site, the sounds were amplified and the angelus bells could be heard ringing in the morning, at midday and in the evening. They cadenced the working day in the vineyards and villages, calling the men and women to stop their labours for a few minutes and pray.  

The great French impressionist painter, Jean-François Millet immortalised this moment of prayer in his magnificent work “The Angelus”, which is now on show in Paris’ Musée d’Orsay. The Angelus devotion has a long history originating in 11th-century monastic custom, but the ringing of a noon bell is attributed to Pope Callistus III, who ordered a prayer for protection against the Turkish invasions of the 1400’s. 

The bell on the Château Angélus label recalls the call to prayer and the moment of devotion. 

Three months of summer without water: never before seen in the memory of winegrowers! This surprising climatology, these incredible conditions associated with the terroirs at Angélus, have given us a great, unpredicted, unexpected vintage. The harvest, picking calmly and when we wanted, took place from 4 to 21 October. The long time on skins allowed us to extract very ripe grape seed tannins this year. These tannins have an elegant structure, stable and for very long ageing. As we had expected of them, the Merlots show an extremely deep colour, and their rich alcohol is perfectly integrated. They are dominated by fruit, freshness, breed and elegance. The Cabernets Francs, with their crunchiness, which we had suspected during the harvest, magnify this very great vintage of Angélus and enthral us with their level of quality: a touch of cashmere tannins, great smoothness, spicy notes. They rival the Merlots in their elegance. 2016 is a radiant vintage mirroring the incredible summer conditions which shaped its identity and determined its destiny.