98
Jeb Dunnuck Tasting Note
Still youthfully ruby/plum-hued, 2010 Château Angélus is a powerhouse of an Angélus. Based on a normal blend of 60% Merlot and 40% Cabernet Franc, it was brought up in new barrels for 22 months and offers full-bodied aromas and flavors of blackcurrants, loamy earth, smoked tobacco, baking spices, and a kiss of flowery incense. It has incredible balance, velvety tannins, and a gorgeous mid-palate, showing the pure, aristocratic, layered style this estate is known for. It’s just now entering its prime drinking window and has another 20-30 years of longevity. Drink 2025-2055.
97
Wine Spectator Tasting Note
Got patience? You'll need it to wait this brute out fully. A chunk of tar sits between you and the core of black currant, hoisin sauce and roasted Black Mission fig fruit flavors, while the back end is a road-paving machine laying down a smoldering tarry track of tobacco and freshly ground coffee. And there's an iron note too, as if this needed it. One of the most backward wines of the vintage. Best from 2017 through 2040. 8,750 cases made.
93
Vinous Tasting Note
(a blend of 55% merlot and 45% cabernet franc) Very deep purple-ruby. Sexy, oak-spiced black cherry and blackberry aromas are accented by mocha and vanilla, with a sneaky violet note emerging with air. Concentrated cassis and oaky flavors are impressively bright, with tangy minerality adding energy. Balanced and suave, showing impressive finishing length, with mounting, slightly drying tannins.
99
James Suckling Tasting Note
The nose is impressively rich with an opulence and sexiness with earth, berry, spice and chocolate character. Black truffles! Full body, with seamless tannins and beautiful richness. It goes on for minutes. The layers of fruit and ripe tannins are phenomenal. This is the greatest Angelus ever for me. Try in 2018.
99
Wine Advocate Tasting Note
This is another magnificent wine. How much fun will it be to have the 2000, 2005, 2009 and 2010 in future tastings to see which vintage comes out on top? They are all candidates that will flirt with perfection, depending on the state of their evolution. The 2010 has a similar color to the 2009, but is perhaps even more opaque, which seems almost impossible. Subtle barbecue smoke, graphite, blackberry liqueur, licorice and chocolate leap from the glass, and the wine hits the palate with a thunderous cascade of sweet, velvety, full-bodied, concentrated black fruits, nice definition from the tannins and decent acidity. The wine has a majestic, multi-layered finish that goes on for a minute. This magnificent wine is still frightfully young and somewhat unformed, but every bit as prodigious as its older sibling, the 2009. It will probably end up evolving on a slightly slower evolutionary track. However, it has 50 years of longevity.