Analysis: Why is Château Angélus leaving the St Emilion classification?

Another week, another thunder clap for the St Emilion classification. Château Angélus announced today, January 5, that it is withdrawing its application for the 2022 ranking, and therefore renouncing its status as Premier Grand Cru Classé A.

This is just six months after Châteaux Cheval Blanc and Ausone announced their own withdrawal in July 2021. Their decision became clear the morning after applications closed for the next round of a classification that has its roots in the 1950s but that has the unusual (and it turns out deadly) signature of being revised every 10 years. Angélus, in contrast, had already submitted its application to maintain its status at the top of the ranking, and has now chosen to take it no further.

There are other differences also. Where Cheval and Ausone announced that their resignation was due to the judging criteria of the ranking (with Cheval Blanc specifically suggesting that the evaluation system had lost sight of ‘the notion of identity and typicity’), Angélus instead drew attention to the elephant in the room – the never-ending series of lawsuits that have engulfed the process.

We have already seen the first legal battles over the new classification reaching court seven months before the results are even published in September 2022. Chateaux Tour St Christophe and Croix de Labrie, who had seen their applications rejected due to their inclusion of newly-acquired land, were successful in their appeal to have this decision overturned.

Further court battles over the 2012 and 2006 ranking are still rumbling away in the background- although the most high-profile one, involving Hubert de Bôuard of Château Angelus has now been closed, as he decided not to appeal the verdict in November 2021 that found him guilty of ‘undue influence’ when serving as a member of the commission appointed by the National Institute of Wine Appellations (INAO) to set the rules of the ranking. He was not, I should add, found guilty of having any influence on the result – but it is easy to imagine that from this point on the team at Angélus began considering the wider ramifications.

A press release issued from Angélus today states that the classification has become a vehicle for ‘antagonism and instability’, and that ‘naturally the recent court decision which, after more than ten years of proceedings, fined Hubert de Boüard on account of his participation in the national wine appellations committee, reinforces us in our choice to withdraw from a process… which does not seem to us to be assured, and the advantages of which do not make up for the risks of unjust attacks’.

I spoke with owner Stéphanie de Boüard this morning to further understand the motivation behind their decision.

‘We don’t share the same reasons as Cheval and Ausone, but perhaps their leaving made it easier for us to come to our own decision,’ said de Boüard. ‘Of course what happened to my father was instrumental in coming to this decision but we have been considering it for more than two years. We increasingly felt that we wanted to preserve our energy to focus on making the greatest wine that we are able to, and not on continually defending ourselves against attacks’.

The decision had been kept entirely private, with de Boüard only telling the staff of Angélus this morning, and then beginning the process of calling négociants and clients. ‘We clearly know what Angélus is worth, and in reality nothing will change,’ she said. ‘Except we hope the attacks and the hostility’.

There have been several changes within Angélus itself over the last few years, not least its growing in size to 52ha, with a separate cellar built to vinify Carillon d’Angélus and No 3 d’Angélus, with the original classified 27ha kept for the main estate wine and vinified at the château. It is too early to speculate on what impact leaving the ranking will have on this, but clearly they will no longer have to abide by the same rules that Tour St Christophe and Croix de Labrie have just battled against. 2021 is also the first vintage with new technical director Benjamin Laforet (pictured in the background above), who has taken over from long-term director Emmanuelle d’Aligny-Fulchi, with the property since 1996.  The last year has also seen Stéphanie de Bôuard working with a deputy CEO Delphine Iriart, who will be moving to a consultancy role from February 2022.

It’s another blow to the classification, not least because in many ways, despite the controversies, Angélus represented the heart of the classification’s original intention – that hard work could be rewarded. Angélus is the only estate to have gone through all levels, promoted from Grand Cru Classé to Premier Grand Cru Classé B in 1996, and again to Premier Grand Cru Classé A in 2012. The fact that it became a target for court cases as a result should stand as a clear warning to the rest of the appellation.

All of this leaves just Château Pavie as the only Premier Grand Cru Classé A within the St Emilion classification (as a friend pointed out today, they have the wording engraved on the door to the estate, so any withdrawal of their own will involve a call to the local stonemason). They are likely to be joined in September by several new estates, with likely contenders including Figeac and Troplong Mondot. And in answer to the question that I have been getting all day – will the 2022 classification go ahead? I have one simple answer to that – yes. Because can you imagine the number of lawsuits that would be launched if it didn’t?