Description
Parker: 99/100
When to drink: 2015 to 2045
Gabriel:
| Drinking maturity | drink ( - 2025) |
|---|---|
| Valuation | 19/20 |
| 01: Barrel sample (19/20): Production: 78,000 bottles: Intense, slightly smoky blackberry, blueberry and cassis bouquet, dark precious woods, coffee. Creamy, absolutely homogeneous palate; lots of blackcurrant, black elderberry, olives, again blackberries, black cherries, rosewood and teak notes, malty flavour in the endlessly long finish, plus tannins that support the entire mouth and are surrounded by flesh, extract and muscle. A very, very great Angélus, comparable in character to the brilliant 1988 - only much more powerful and concentrated. A transcendental St. Emilion experience to take off! Of all the contenders for a possible wine of the century from the right bank of the Garonne, this is one of the hottest! 02: Shortly after bottling: Enormously concentrated, black berry bouquet; shows traces of a Harlan due to its mint and chocolate flavours. Fleshy palate with very compressed, almost massive extract, seems like a reduced essence (19/20). 04: Finely smoky, dense bouquet; black peppercorns, peppernuts, gingerbread spices, cloves and freshly roasted coffee, clear traces of cassis, a powerful, impressive nose. A finely juicy palate, enormous substance and a balance with active tannins, grainy extract and ripe, gently plummy fruit, almost Australian Shiraz flavours on the finish and lots of cinnamon in the chocolate and plum finale. A great Angélus that has refined since the barrel tasting and can develop into a 90 plus. (19/20). 06: Powerful bouquet with lots of ripe mulberry tones, the fruit is rich and shows gentle jammy hints, dark precious woods and light coffee notes behind it. Lots of substance on the palate, but also a lot of souplesse in the creamy, rolling tannins, rich, endless finish. Among the new Angélus, this is the most harmonious and somehow the most complete, even if its potential is perhaps less than that of the 1988, 1994 and 1998 vintages. 09: Hubert de Bouard took this wine with him to a dinner at Côte de Baleau. It was completely closed, stubborn and showed like a monster wine! So don't touch it. (19/20). 15: The darkest colour of all the Saint Emilion's tasted. The nose is characterised almost exclusively by black components; smoke, liquorice, dried blueberries, blackcurrants, the genius is its enormously profound spiciness. And the palate is just as concentrated. The initially almost petulant tannins have now moulded and continue to form a clearly demanding astringency. The wine has clearly been vinified at (over?) the limit. This is taking its revenge in the current lack of enjoyment and will (hopefully) not become a handicap in the coming years. (19/20). 16: On the nose, you can sense the first signs of maturity, but the wine is still quite blocked on the palate. The evolution is increasingly becoming an unintentional feat of strength. | |
