| Angélus 2007 • March 2008 | ANGÉLUS
1st Great Classified Growth
2007 Vintage
Surface area :
23.4 hectares (58 acres) in one single block.
Soils :
Clay-limestone in the high part, clay-sand-limestone at the foot of the hillside slopes.
Grape varieties :
- 50% Merlot,
- 47% Cabernet Franc,
- 3% Cabernet Sauvignon.
Density of plantation :
6,500 to 7,500 plants per hectare.
Average age of the vines :
35 years.
Vineyard management :
Vines grown in the traditional manner. Some of the rows are seeded with grass. De-budding and crop thinning.
Harvest :
By hand. Grapes are sorted on three successive sorting tables and directed to fermentation vats solely by conveyor belts.
Vinification :
In stainless steel, oak and concrete vats, all of them temperature-controlled.
Vatting period :
3 to 5 weeks.
Transfer to barrels :
Immediately after the running off.
Ageing :
18 to 22 months.
2007 vintage
This summer at Château Angélus, the vines were subjected to very close monitoring, constant tending at each stage of development: de-leafing, crop thinning on a vine-by-vine basis to compensate for the less than favourable weather conditions at the beginning of summer.
The fabulous weather during September rewarded all these efforts by providing us with superb conditions, allowing the grapes to ripen in perfectly good health.
We were repeatedly out in the vineyard just before the harvest, monitoring, tasting the berries, and testing their ripeness plot by plot… Thanks to the fine weather, the juice in the berries concentrated, flavours and aromas developed, and the tannins became more and more refined.
As expected, we began the picking on September 25 at perfect levels of ripeness.
Each day, depending wholly on the quality of the grapes indicated by grape sample analyses and our own tasting of the berries, we decided, plot by plot, whether to pick or not. We took as much time as we needed. We waited in the same manner to get the best possible results for the Cabernet Franc, which we finished picking on October 12.
Collected in small crates, the berries went through their customary meticulous sorting on their arrival at the cellar. One sorting table before de-stemming, a mistral table (an automatic sorting blower), after de-stemming, and then a last sorting table before the berries were taken by conveyor belt to the vats -with the help of 15 pairs of hands!
After unparalleled efforts in the vines this summer, painstaking work then began in the vat cellar. Fermentations and extractions were adapted to each vat according to the grape variety and the characteristics of the berries. The fruit showed very good balance between sugar (with, on average, potential alcoholic degrees of 13.5°), acidity/pH and very well defined fruit aromas.
During tastings, the new wine shows very deep colour, lovely fruit aromas and silky, fresh-tasting texture.
Contact
Château Angélus – 33330 Saint-Emilion
Tel : +33 (0)5 57 24 71 39 – Fax : +33 (0)5 57 24 68 56
E-mail : château-angelus@château-angelus.com
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