2011 Château Angélus St-Émilion

96 POINTS

Jane Anson - Decanter Magazine

2011 was a fairly classical vintage, and after austere early years it's now becoming approachable, full of life, finesse and precision. You can begin to see in this wine how Angélus opens up with some bottle age. There are touches of rose petal alongside still-intense damson fruits, and the liquorice through the mid-palate is coming to the fore. There's good flesh to the tannins, and the elegance is clear without being too serious. Angélus is a wine that never forgets how to be generous.

95 POINTS

Jane Anson - Decanter Magazine

Fine tannins, this is elegant and finessed, with cool blueberry and raspberry fruits, touches of orange peel, rose petal and slate. Well balanced, precise and well crafted, with a shot of espresso and cocoa bean on the finish. This is just beginning to be ready to drink if given a good few hours in a carafe.

95 POINTS

Bob Campbell MW - The Real Review

Wonderfully perfumed wine with chocolate, dark berry, mint, herbs and violet among the more obvious flavours. It has a very fine-grained texture, with firm but fine tannins. Not a great vintage but a very good example

94 POINTS

Robert Parker - Wine Advocate

The 2011 Angelus is another winner from Hubert de Bouard. Supple and sexy with lots of blueberry and black raspberry fruit intermixed with licorice, barbecue smoke and camphor, this medium to full-bodied, supple-textured, sexy effort offers delicious drinking now, and promises to become even better over the next decade. It should keep for 15 or more years.

94 POINTS

Neal Martin - Vinous

The 2011 Angélus has a lovely bouquet with ample red fruit, fireside hearth/ash and a touch of Earl Grey. Fine definition and lift here. The palate is very well balanced with supple tannins, fine bead of acidity, quite sensual for the growing season with a judicious plushness and a sense of breeding on the finish. Superb. Tasted blind at the annual 10-Year-On tasting.

94 POINTS

Gary Walsh - The Wine Front

Jean-Bernard Grenié calls this ‘A classic Angelus, and a little brother to the 2001 vintage’. He suggests enjoying it within the next three or four years. Importer: Langtons More maturity in the flavor here, going to black plum and almost some raisin, coffee, dried herb. Full bodied, depth and complexity, grainy feel to the rich tannin, a slick of earth and plummy flavor in the aftertaste. Very good drinking now. Like this.

91 POINTS

Ian D'Agata - Vinous

Bright ruby-purple color. Sweet oak-spiced aromas of dark berries, mocha and cola, with a floral note gaining strength with air. Supple and expansive on entry, then rising tannins give the mid-palate a serious brooding quality, but there's plenty of intense cassis and red cherry flavor to support the tannins. Closes flinty and long, with a persistent chocolate quality. I really like the way this powerful wine remains graceful and refined; I hope Hubert de Bouard tries scaling back on the extraction a little, because when he does wines like this one, they are real beauts. A very good showing for 2011.

Julia Harding MW - JancisRobinson.com

Black inky core. Invitingly dark, rich and spiced on the nose. Fragrant and promising. Lightly cedary. Cool, elegant and refined but deep, deep tannins giving a firm rounded structure. Long and rich. Score: 17/20