Château Angélus, 2024 - Magnum

"The 2024 Angelus is very fine. It is the first vintage I have tasted that captures the newer approach at Angelus, one where the wines are not as extracted as in the past. Black cherry, plum, spice, new leather and menthol fill out the layers effortlessly. Here, too, the wine shows superb balance and real textural presence. The blend is 60% Merlot and 40% Cabernet Franc, with the Merlot being raised in 80% new oak and 20% once-filled barrels, and the Cabernet Franc in equal parts foudres and new smaller French oak barrels. The 2024 is mid-weight, classy and polished."

"Beautiful fragrance on the nose, super perfumed and floral with sweet red fruits too, lifted and very welcoming. Creamy red cherries and bright strawberries. Round and filling, this has instant appeal with a generous push of crisp fruit but it’s more the texture and layering of elements here that is so wonderful. Feels precise and well detailed with finely woven tannins that have a connotation and almost thickness to them that many in the vintage don’t have. Classic, cool and super fresh but filled with crystalline fruit and so much elegance. Fun, fruity, stylish and just brilliant. Great mineral finish too. Fabulous. I visited Angélus during the harvest and saw first hand pristine berries. 3.65pH."

"(Saint-Émilion; 60% Merlot; 40% Cabernet Franc; this is Hubert de Boüard’s 40th vintage and it is marked on the label; a final yield of 38 hl/ha; pH 3.55; 13.8% with no chaptalisation; tasted at Angélus with Benjamin Laforet). A gloriously frank (Cabernet) franc nose. So obviously Angélus, though it could almost be Hommage à Elizabeth Bouchet (the 100 per cent Cabernet Franc micro-cuvée)! Violet. Peony blooms. Grated dark single estate chocolate. Fruits of the forest. Damson. Black cherry. Blueberry and confit blueberry. A hint of frangipane. Cedar. Graphite. This is succulent and svelte on the layered entry – we move here from Carillon’s layers of silk to the grand vin’s pillows of velvet. Lots of depth and a wide and ample frame too, with gravitas coming from the chalky tannins that pull the bottom layers downwards and in the space that creates release both menthol and a wondrous juicy sapidity. This grows and grows in the mouth. Very precise and intensely detailed. Long and subtle, beautifully balanced and always fresh."