A great wine with superb concentration and richness. yet it's ever so agile and polished. Spices, blueberries, cinnamon and dried flowers. Full body and polished and full tannins. Great length. The refinement to the tannins is amazing. Compacted. Essence-like. Needs five or six years to open. Try in 2025.
99 points, James Suckling (Oct 2019)
The 2015 Angelus is Stephanie de Bouard-Rivoal’s first vintage as CEO. It is a blend of 62% Merlot and 38% Cabernet Franc and has a deep garnet color. It sashays out of the glass with gloriously opulent notes of Indian spices, sandalwood, and dried roses, with a core of stewed black and red plums, kirsch, and dark chocolate, plus a waft of licorice. Full-bodied, the palate is still tightly wound, delivering beautifully ripe, silt-like tannins and great freshness to frame the generous black and red fruit layers, finishing long and perfumed.
98 points, Lisa Perrotti-Brown, Wine Independent (Nov 2022)
The first vintage under the control of Stéphanie de Boüard-Rivoal, following on from her father Hubert de Boüard, 2015 Angélus is a little more discreet and restrained than some preceding vintages. Still deep and impenetrable in colour, there are wonderfully ripe tannins here, with the Cabernet Franc particularly evident through leafy, balsam wood notes and beautifully restrained oak. A 15% alcohol wine which doesn't show it.
98 points, Andy Howard, Decanter (Nov 2019)
A total blockbuster is the 2015 Angelus and it’s reminiscent of a slightly more elegant 2009. Made from 62% Merlot and 38% Cabernet Franc brought up in new barrels, this rich, opulent beauty boast killer notes of blackcurrants, blackberry liqueur, truffle, chocolate and scorched earth. With full-bodied richness, building, ripe tannin and a stacked profile on the palate, this hedonistic Bomb of a wine from Hubert de Boüard needs 4-5 years of cellaring and will keep for three decades or more.
97+ points, Jeb Dunnuck (Nov 2017)
Deep garnet-purple in color, the 2015 Angélus is a little closed to begin, soon blossoming into a wonderfully fragrant perfume of raspberry preserves, ripe black plums and chocolate-covered cherries with suggestions of Darjeeling tea, candied violets, spice cake and cinnamon stick with a touch of aniseed. Full-bodied, the palate is fabulously opulent, delivering mouth-coating black and red fruit layers with loads of floral sparkles and a seductively velvety texture, finishing with great length and tension.
97 points, Wine Advocate (Oct 2020)
The 2015 Angélus has a calm, cool and collected bouquet of tightly wound black fruit that unfurls with aeration to reveal blackberry, gravel and pencil box notes; classic, almost Left Bank in style, and delivered with real panache. The palate is exquisitely balanced with fine but grippy tannin, layers of black and red fruit tinged with vanilla and perfect acidity. The harmonious, sensual finish is very alluring. What a stunning 2015 this is going to be! Tasted blind at the Southwold 2015 Bordeaux tasting.
97 points, Neal Martin, Vinous (Jul 2019)
This wine is structured, powerful and ripe but also elegant and stylish. Juicy black fruits combine with a dry, structured core to give the wine both its richness and its future. Powered by its fruit and tannins, it has good aging potential. Drink from 2027.
97 points, Roger Voss, Wine Enthusiast (Apr 2018)