1998 Angélus

Wine Details
Producer

Angélus

Place of Origin

France

Saint Émilion 1er Grand Cru Classé "A"

Bordeaux

Color

Red

Grape/Blend

60% Merlot, 40% Cabernet Franc (2024 vintage)

Reviews & Tasting Notes

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Drinking Window

2018 - 2040

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Except for the vines on porous, gravelly soil and on sand without much clay, Angelus was relatively unaffected by the summer drought, said proprietor Hubert de Bouard, because on most of his property, the vines' roots are in water-retentive clay. The hugely rich 2000 has total polyphenols 20% higher than any past vintage, according to Bouard, which puts it virtually into uncharted territory. The wine went into barriques very early, where it finished its malolactic fermentation, and was still on its lees, unracked, at the beginning of March. It a monster in the making.

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Hubert de Bouard picked almost all his fruit in the days following the damaging hailstorm of September 5. Early rumors were that there would be little grand vin, but in fact, thanks to the generous crop load, estate-wide production will only be down about 15%, and about half the crop should ultimately be bottled as Angelus (much of the cabernet franc and the younger merlot vines will go into the second wine, Le Carillon d'Angelus). "We had ripe sugars despite the early harvest," noted Bouard. "We'll soon see about the ripeness of the polyphenols."

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The cabernet franc picked before October 1 was superb, says Hubert de Bouard, but the late-harvested franc quickly became vegetal and had to be declassified. The merlot came in between September 26 and 29, and Bouard was quick to admit that in St. Emilion "we didn't have the perfect merlot harvest enjoyed in Pomerol." Bouard compares his young '98 to the '95 and '90: "a bit less firm but more opulent than '95, with the chocolatey flavor but not the surmaturite of 1990." Polyphenol levels are practically off the scale in '98, but the '90 was even more tannic, says Bouard. On my early April visit, Bouard told me he would like to do an experimental cuvee in 1999, isolating a half-hectare of vines and removing half the fruit to get the yield down to a mere 22 hectoliters per hectare.