On January 10 James conducted a Tasting Interview with Stephanie de Bouard-Rivoal and her father Hubert De Bouard De Laforest of Chateau Angelus. James recently finished tasting hundreds of wines from the 2018 Bordeaux vintage and in this conversation he learned how 2018 was the first vintage at Angelus in which they used large oak casks during maturation.
"We discussed how we could improve precision, finesse and how can we work on the wood impact," explained Stephanie. "So in 2018 there were two foudre where we aged the cabernet franc, and that was really noticeable for us in bringing the extra elegance and finesse that we were searching for."
Hubert added: "Tasting the 2018 reminded me of something from the Right Bank, something between 1998 and 2001. A lot of precision and a lot of depth, which was what I really liked in 2018."
Watch the video above for highlights of the tasting and discussion. James' report on the 2018 Bordeaux wines is coming soon so watch this space.
Below is the wine that was tasted during the call. Click the link to see the tasting notes and scores (subscribers only).
