|
Chateau Angelus has one of the longest histories in the St. Emilion appellation.
The de Bouard family has an even longer history in the region.
In fact, the de Bouard family has been in Bordeaux since 1544, according to family archives.
In 1626 the de Bouard family began buying land in the Dordogne where they eventually settled.
They arrived in St. Emilion in 1910, which marks the true birth of what we know of as Chateau Angelus today.
That is the year Maurice de Bouard de La Forest inherited Chateau Mazerat, which was owned by the Souffrain family, who had possessed the property since the 18th century.
In 1922, Elisabeth Bouchet, the second wife of Maurice de Bouard de La Forest purchased a 3.5-hectare parcel of vines known as Clos L’Angelus and the estate was born.
With the addition of another 13 hectares of prime vineyard land acquired from the Gruchy family, which also owned the neighboring estate of Chateau Laroze, Clos de L’Angelus was now a sizable vineyard.
They soon added an additional 3-hectare parcel of vines from land that would eventually become known as Chateau Beau-Sejour Becot.
Chateau Angelus takes its name from a common, everyday event.
On a daily basis, the people working their vineyards heard sounds of bells from three local churches.
That sound inspired the now famous name of the chateau as well as the logo and the sculpture of the logo that appears in the backyard of the property.
Chateau Angelus is still owned by the de Bouard family.
Since 1989, Chateau Angelus has been considered one of the top estates in the entire Right Bank.
Prior to Hubert de Bouard taking over the vineyard, the truth is, the property was not making wines as good as their terroir allowed.
Hubert de Bouard joined the family business at Chateau Angelus after graduating from Bordeaux University, where he studied under the famed Professor Emily Peynaud.
At the time, the vineyard was much smaller than it is today, with only 26 hectares of vines.
It took a while before things turned around for Chateau Angelus.
In years like 1982 and 1985, when the materials were there to make great wine, Chateau Angelus underperformed.
After taking over from his father, Jacques de Bouard starting with the 1988 vintage, Hubert began rapidly making changes at Angelus starting with a name change.
He changed the name from L’Angelus to Angelus.
He said, “This allows the wine to show up first in alphabetized lists.” He was right!
More importantly, Hubert de Bouard was one of the first Bordeaux vignerons to embrace fermenting in open-top vats and conducting malolactic fermentation in small barrels.
He started employing other techniques that were popular in Burgundy but were not widely used at the time in Bordeaux.
This included fermenting with whole berries, aging on the lees, harvesting, and vinifying on a parcel by parcel basis.
To further improve the wines of Chateau Angelus, Hubert de Bouard lowered yields, increased the leaf canopies, began green harvesting, improved the selection, and started aging the wines in new, French oak barrels.
He changed the rootstocks to lower-yielding, increased the density in the vineyard, and improved the drainage system.
While all of these practices are standard at all well-managed vineyards today, at the time, they were almost revolutionary!
The grapes were now harvested later, as they were now seeking to pick phenolically ripe berries.
Hubert de Bouard, a former pupil of Emile Peynaud insists he was and is making Bordeaux wine at Angelus the way it was made during the 1950s, but with a modern twist.
Chateau Angelus was one of the first chateaus to expand into China and Asia.
In part, some of their initial success in China was due to their logo of the golden bell, where the wine is referred to as Kin Chung, The Golden Bell.
In fact, Hubert de Bouard has always been a savvy marketer. He was one of the first people to connect with Hollywood when he negotiated the addition of Chateau Angelus into the plot of a James Bond movie!
In June 2012, Stephanie de Bouard-Rivoal, the daughter of Hubert de Bouard was named executive manager of the estate.
That same year. September 6, 2012, Chateau Angelus was upgraded in the official 2012 St. Emilion Classification to Premier Grand Cru Classe A.
Only 4 St. Emilion estates shared that honor.
To celebrate the upgrade in the classification, Chateau Angelus released the 2012 vintage in a special pitch-black, colored bottle that was embossed with a 21.7-carat gold imprinted script.
This design replaced their standard paper label.
The unique design was only be used for the Chateau Angelus 2012 vintage.
When the 2012 Angelus was first offered for sale as a future, the estate raised the price.
A decision that was considered controversial, due to the moderate quality of the difficult vintage.
However, prices for all back vintage of Chateau Angelus quickly moved up in the marketplace following their elevated status, vindicating their price increase.
Preceding and coinciding with the upgrade of the classification for Chateau Angelus, the estate finished a complete renovation of the property.
Designed by the noted architects Jean-Pierre Errath, and Arnaud Boulain, the massive project included the creation of new, completely modernized cellars, a reception center for guests, work on the chateau, business offices, and the famous, Chateau Angelus Belltower.
A large part of the effort required extensive use of limestone blocks from the Frontenac quarries located in St. Emilion.
It is estimated that the total cost of the renovations cost more than 10 million Euros.
Much of the work was completed in 2013, just in time for the 2013 harvest.
The entire renovation of Chateau Angelus was finished in early 2014.
In January 2022, Stephanie de Bouard announced that Chateau Angelus would no longer be a part of the Classification following the footsteps of Chateau Cheval Blanc and Chateau Ausone.
Starting with the 2022 vintage, Chateau Angelus will no longer state Premier Cru Classe A on the label.
And the story continues...
The Wine Merchant was pleased to welcome Mr. Hubert de Bouard in Bangkok last week for special tasting and dinner and looking forward to working more closely together in the near future!
| 
