Chateau Angelus, Saint-Emilion Grand Cru 2015

The 2015 Angelus is Stephanie de Bouard-Rivoal’s first vintage as CEO. It is a blend of 62% Merlot and 38% Cabernet Franc and has a deep garnet color. It sashays out of the glass with gloriously opulent notes of Indian spices, sandalwood, and dried roses, with a core of stewed black and red plums, kirsch, and dark chocolate, plus a waft of licorice. Full-bodied, the palate is still tightly wound, delivering beautifully ripe, silt-like tannins and great freshness to frame the generous black and red fruit layers, finishing long and perfumed.

Deep nose of damson plums and very ripe black cherries. Very ripe and concentrated with enormous, fine and powdery tannins They guide the voluptuous and velvety palate out on its path towards a distant horizon. Very powerful and dense at the finish, but impeccably balanced. Yes, this is amazing to drink now, but it has so much potential. Drinkable now, but best from 2025. Château Quintus vertical tasting. SP.

A total blockbuster is the 2015 Angelus and it’s reminiscent of a slightly more elegant 2009. Made from 62% Merlot and 38% Cabernet Franc brought up in new barrels, this rich, opulent beauty boast killer notes of blackcurrants, blackberry liqueur, truffle, chocolate and scorched earth. With full-bodied richness, building, ripe tannin and a stacked profile on the palate, this hedonistic Bomb of a wine from Hubert de Boüard needs 4-5 years of cellaring and will keep for three decades or more.

Readers will have to be very patient with the 2015 Angélus. Massively tannic and forbidding, Angélus is one of the most reticent, unyielding 2015s I tasted. The high percentage of Cabernet Franc, the approach to extraction, aging in the cellar - which involves minimal racking and low S02 - and slightly late bottling are some of the factors that result in a huge, powerful, impenetrable wine at this stage. Even so, the 2015 exudes concentration and depth. Time in the glass brings out some of the wine's unctuousness, but it will be at least a decade before the 2015 is ready to deliver true drinking pleasure.

A vintage that favoured St-Émilion, and they have made the most of it at Angélus. There are signals of a hot year in the black cherry, cinnamon and fresh fig notes, given depth and complexity with cassis, cigar box, crushed stone and a freshly-crushed mint leaf finish, along with a tingling minerality that cuts through the exuberance and concentration of the vintage. Harvest September 22 to October 14. New cellar as of 2014 also.

The 2015 Angélus has a ripe and generous bouquet with black cherry, espresso, dark chocolate and peppermint aromas, but it doesn't have the precision of the best Right Bank wines. The palate is very plush and forward, with velvety tannins and hints of chocolate chips infusing the red fruit. It's another 2015 that inches toward Napa in style on the finish. This has just a bit of heat, but it's seductive and I believe time will temper its flamboyant personality. Tasted blind at the 2015 Bordeaux Ten-Year-On tasting at Farr Vintners.