Château Angélus 2013

The 2013 vintage in Saint-Émilion

Vintage benchmark: 76/100 (appellation benchmark, not a score for this wine)

Vintage character: Coulure decimated the merlots and the rain did the rest: a light vintage, where the gap between terroirs is wider than usual.

Overall reading of the year’s season across Saint-Émilion. An estate can depart from it sharply, in frost or hail years, where two neighbours did not make the same vintage. What this particular wine actually gave is on its technical sheet and in the scores above.

Blend of the 2013 vintage

Merlot(92%), Cabernet franc(38%)

Shares for this vintage, as recorded on the 2013 technical sheet. The vineyard itself is planted with 54 % merlot, 43 % cabernet franc, 2 % cabernet sauvignon, 1 % petit verdot.

Figures from the 2013 sheet

• 39 yrsVine age
• 90,000 bottlesProduction

Winemaking

In wooden and stainless steel vats for the Merlots, in concrete vats for the Cabernet francs. Pre-fermentation maceration at 8°C in certain vats depending on the characteristics of the grapes, from 4 days to a week. Alcoholic fermentation temperatures up to 28°C. Post fermentation maceration at 28-30°C, 1 to 3 weeks

Ageing

22 months in new French oak barrels (Merlot and part Cabernet franc) and in 30hl casks (Cabernet franc).

Terroir

At Château Angélus the vineyard lies in a natural amphitheatre, on the slope and lower slope on the southern side of Saint-Emilion, which concentrates warm summer temperatures and advances ripening. The soil is naturally drained by the gradient. The good balance between clay and limestone ensures a steady supply of water and minerals. The clay content, measured at between 8 and 20%, makes these soils warm and early-ripening. The rootstocks are perfectly suited to the terroir and the grape varieties are distributed according to the soils: Merlot on the slope (more clayey) and Cabernet Franc on the sandy clay-limestone soils of the lower slope.