Château Angélus: Vineyards
When I first penned this profile the vineyards of Château Angélus itself, which covered 34 hectares, are situated on the famous côtes of St Emilion with the clay and limestone terroir typical of the region. Of these 27 hectares were classified in the St Emilion classification of 2012 (not that this matters since the estate left the classification in 2022). It is planted with 50% Merlot and 47% Cabernet Franc, with just 3% Cabernet Sauvignon bringing up the rear. The vines have an average age of about 30 years, and are planted at a density of up to 7,000 vines per hectare, although the newest parcels are usually 8,300 to 8,600 vines per hectare. The soils between the rows are planted to grass. The vines are pruned in the Girondine style, with two canes, and throughout the season they see debudding, crop-thinning and de-leafing, all done by hand. The vine canopies are handled so that leaf surface is maximised but grape bunches are not crowded, and the crop is managed with the aim of low yields without green harvesting if possible; a typical figure for Château Angélus is between 35 and 40 hl/ha.
In recent years, however, the vineyard portfolio has been expanded with the acquisition of a further 5 hectares of vines close to Château Cheval Blanc and Château Figeac, as well as a 3-hectare parcel in the commune of Saint-Christophe-des-Bardes. Then with the absorption of half of the vineyard of Château Bellevue the Angélus vineyard grew again, by just over 3 hectares. And they have also acquired vines in Castillon to the east, which feed into two new cuvées poured alongside the three Angélus wines (or more like five in truth – I provide more detail on the full range of wines on the next page). At this point I think I might have lost count of how many hectares they have in total, but in St Emilion alone I believe Hubert and Stephanie have 45 hectares at their disposal, of which about 37 hectares are gathered around Angélus itself. As for the more distant purchases, these tend not to feed into the grand vin Château Angélus; instead, these more distant parcels feed into the second and third wines.
I should also add that secluded within these 45 hectares there is a small and rather confidential parcel of white vines, as the team here have been working on a white project for some years.
