CHATEAU ANGELUS [ST EMILION] 2020 750ML

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.

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.

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

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.

The 2020 Angélus has turned out superbly and underlines this estate's continuing shift to a more elegant, integrated style that offers a purer expression of its terroir. A blend of 60% Merlot and 40% Cabernet Franc, it unwinds in the glass with aromas of cherries, wild berries, rose petals, mint and subtle hints of licorice, followed by a medium to full-bodied, beautifully layered and vibrant palate that's deep, precise and penetrating, concluding with a mouthwateringly chalky finish.