Chateau Angélus has unveiled a new wine, Hommage à Elisabeth Bouchet. The new release is a small-production cuvée that will only be released in the best vintages. This year’s bottling is priced at $765, but is sure to cost far more than that already.
The first Chateau Angélus Hommage à Elisabeth Bouchet release comes from the 2016 vintage. Made from 60 to 80 year old vines of Cabernet Franc (or Bouchet) from two small parcels in the Southwest corner of the Angélus vineyard on the iconic pied de côte (the foot of the slope). The soil is made up of clay-limestone and clay-scree-limestone. The wine was aged for 22 months in carefully selected and exceptionally fine-grained new oak from the Vosges forest so as not to mark the wine in any noticeable way.
The wine honors Elisabeth Bouchet, great-grandmother of Stéphanie de Boüard-Rivoal, co-owner and CEO of Chateau Angélus. As the story goes, Maurice de Boüard de Laforest, Stephanie’s great-grandfather and Elisabeth’s husband, extensively planted the vineyard of Angélus with Bouchet to honor his beloved.
Lisa Perrotti-Brown MW (The Wine Advocate) rated the 2016 100-points, and called it a “masterpiece.” Adding, “That this estate has managed to craft such a complete, jaw-dropping beauty entirely from Cabernet Franc is a triumph and, I hope, not the last of its kind.”
“Hommage à Elisabeth Bouchet won’t necessarily be made every year,” Stephanie told Perrotti-Brown. “2016, 2018 and 2019 have been made. There is no 2017 because of the frost. This label will only be made when this section of Cabernet Franc is exceptional.”
Just 1200 bottles and a few larger format bottlings of the 2016 have been made and are all offered in individual wooden cases. The wine was released on la place de Bordeaux through a very limited number of négociants and is already going for £860 in bond for a single bottle.
For more information, head over to Chateau Angélus’ official website.
