Château Angelus is celebrating its 2012 promotion to Saint-Émilion's
premier A-league with a commemorative black bottle embossed in gold.
The estate's owners, Stéphanie and Hubert de Boüard, made the
announcement at a packed, standing room-only press conference at VinExpo
Asia-Pacific 2014 on Wednesday in Hong Kong.
The father-daughter team told the room they wanted their 2012 vintage, the first to bear its new status of premier grand cru classé A, honored with "a new style of bottle."
The celebratory bottle replaces its traditional paper label with an imprint in embossed 21.7 carat gold. The entire 2012 harvest, currently maturing and scheduled for delivery in the fall of 2014, will be housed in the special bottles. It will also be available in a limited edition of large-format bottles, from magnum to imperial. The château's status was upgraded in September 2012.
Stéphanie de Boüard-Rivoal told Wine Searcher: "This special bottle for 2012 has been designed also to mark the arrival of the eighth generation at the head of the estate," referring to herself.
The 2012 vintage is a blend of 55 percent Merlot and 45 percent Cabernet Franc and has been described as being marked by pure fruit and a soft structure. The Right Bank estate has 39 hectares (96 acres) of sloped, south-facing vines with an average age of 38 years.
"2012 is a truly great vintage where the superb quality of the Merlot enhances the Cabernet Franc that gives Angelus its particular style," added Boüard-Rivoal.
At the press conference, she showed the newly refurbished estate and welcomed Chinese visitors to the property. "Almost everything has been restored, including our Château Angelus bell tower, and was completed earlier this year."
In other news from Vinexpo, Château Destieux took the Saint-Émilion Grand Cru Classés Cup for the second year running, pipping Château Monbousquet – under the same ownership as Château Pavie – at the post.
The competition is based on a series of rounds: two estates go head-to head, putting forward three selected vintages. This year those vintages were 2009, 2010 and 2011. The estate that receives the majority of votes from a three-judge panel goes into the next round, the other vineyard is eliminated. The jury changes for each round and the process continues until an outright winner has been selected.
There were 36 entrants this year. The other semi-finalists were Châteaux Cadet-Bon and Dassault.
Source: http://www.wine-searcher.com/
No comments:
Post a Comment