2025 Chateau Angelus, Saint-Emilion Grand Cru

The perfume starts with a strong floral bouquet before you dig into its wealth of red, black, and blue fruits topped with an array of spices and chocolate. The palate opens with a sublime purity of fruit, silky tannins, and zesty acidity, so you find energy, meshed with concentration and elegance. The long, seamless finish is complicated by accents of pepper riding alongside the seamless layers of fresh, clean fruits. The wine blends 50% Merlot, with 50% Cabernet Franc, 14% ABV, 3.6 pH. The wine is aging in a combination of vessels, with the Merlot aging in one-year-old barrels, while the Cabernet Franc is aging in foudres and new French oak barrels. Harvesting took place from September 10 - September 20. Yields were 35 hectoliters per hectare. Drink from 2030-2060.

A great wine from Angélus this year. Blackcurrant and blue fruit aromas with some dried flowers and soft herbal aspects. Round and generous, wide and filling with amazing definition and creamy texture that few wines have this year. Energy and depth, purity and focus – this is juicy at its core with strawberry and red cherry, mouthwatering. Not an immediate showstopper but this grows in flavour and depth with intensity but no heaviness. Beautiful delineation with a sharp, precise, forward persistence. The energy and balance is flawless. Really an elegant, elongated wine with such nuance of flavour. I love this and think they've done a super job – juicy, this brings a smile to your face. The last vintage with this high a proportion of Cabernet Franc (reflecting plantings and similar berry size was 2014 and 1995). 3.6pH. A yield of 30hl/ha. 50% Cabernet Franc ageing in foudres, 50% in new barrels; Merlot 70% new oak and 30% in one-year-old barrels.

The depths are immediately apparent, clear polished stones, liquorice root, olive pit, espresso, cappuccino, full of the luscious signature of the estate, clutches of sage and freshly cut herbs, savoury with a pumice stone climb through the palate. Benjamin Laforêt technical director. Harvest September 10 to 20, 30hl/ha yield, 3.65ph. The Boüard-owned Château Bellevue plots have been included in here as of 2022, ad you can imagine that this vintage really benefited from its limestone soils. As of 2026 vintage Angelus will be made in the new cellar.

Cassis, graphite, violets, iris, and a wonderful sense of minerality all define the 2025 Château Angélus, another ultra-classic Saint-Emilion from this address. It's a 50/50 blend of Cabernet Franc and Merlot, with the Merlot raised in 60% new oak and 40% once-used oak and the Cabernet Franc split between 50% new oak and 50% foudre. Checking in at 14% alcohol with a pH of 3.6, it's medium to full-bodied on the palate, with incredible purity, classy background oak, integrated acidity, and a great finish.

A blend of equal parts Cabernet Franc and Merlot, the 2025 Angélus is already beautifully harmonious, even at this early stage. Unfurling in the glass with notes of sweet dark berries and plums mingled with notions of violets, licorice and spices, it's medium- to full-bodied, layered and multidimensional, with ripe tannins, lively acids and a long, perfumed finish. Much like its 2022 predecessor, the 2025 underlines that this estate's shift toward greater purity and subtler élevage choices can be sustained even in historically warm years. William Kelley.

The 2025 Angélus (50% Cabernet Franc, 50% Merlot) is a superb contemporary Grand Vin. Aromatic, vibrant and wonderfully fresh, the 2025 dazzles from start to finish. Blood orange, mint, white pepper, rose petal and chalk weave through layers of vibrant red-toned fruit. Here, too, the Grand Vin impresses with its noble purity and understated grace. Élevage is 50% foudre/50% new oak for the Cabernet Franc, and 60% new oak/40% once-filled barrels for the Merlot. I can't wait to see how this ages.

The 2025 Angélus was picked from September 10 to 20 and Stéphanie de Bouard told me that they halved the pumpovers. The Cabernet Franc is aged half in foudres and half in new barrel, and the Merlot is half in new barrel and half in one-year-old barrels that were used for the 2023 vintage. The alcohol is 14.05% with a pH of 3.6, many grapes showing a gram or more malic acid. This note comes from a narrower Riedel glass that showed the wine in a better and more accurate light. The bouquet opens with blackberry, raspberry, light cassis scents and a touch of iodine, well defined, the oak seated politely in the background. The palate is silky smooth with filigree tannins, very well judged acidity plus palpable underlying sapid notes that come through towards the finish. Fine tension, very focused with a very persistent aftertaste, this is an Angélus with great potential and it should give 25 to 30 years' drinking pleasure.