Château Angelus

The vineyard of Château Angelus is situated in a natural amphitheatre overlooked by the three Saint-Emilion churches. In the middle of this special site, the sounds were amplified and the angelus bells could be heard ringing in the morning, at midday and in the evening. They cadenced the working day in the vineyards and villages, calling the men and women to stop their labours for a few minutes and pray. Less than a kilometre from the famous Saint-Emilion bell tower, situated on the much-vaunted south-facing “foot of the hill”, Angelus has been the life work of eight generations of the Boüard de Laforest family. In the first-ever classification of Saint-Emilion wines in 1954, Château Angelus was a Grand Cru Classé. Already at the time, it benefitted from a solid reputation, which helped it survive the Bordeaux wine crisis of 1973 and take part in the oenological renewal of the 1980’s. This was the context in which Hubert de Boüard de Laforest, a graduate oenologist from Bordeaux University, took advantage of this marvellous wine’s illustrious past, while being resolutely turned towards the future and launched and continued to implement an ambitious, innovative policy in favour of achieving excellence in wine growing and making. Angelus is henceforward helmed by Stéphanie de Boüard-Rivoal. She represents the eighth generation of the Boüard de Laforest family. After Catherine Sophie de Boüard de Laforest and Eugénie Chatenet, Stéphanie de Boüard-Rivoal is the third woman to preside over the fortunes of this estate, where she was born and grew up. She has an almost physical relationship with Angelus, living with the land and drawing from it the courage and determination she needs to keep on course. It gives her emotional and spiritual strength, and she sees herself as an integral part of this ecosystemic whole.