2014 Chateau Angludet Margaux 750 ml

Margaux Magic in 2014

Left Bank wines dominated by Cabernet Sauvignons are the bright stars of the 2014 vintage. Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate said it best: “The 2014 vintage was predesigned to benefit later ripening grape varieties and generally, the more in your vineyard, the better chance you had of making a great wine.”

The Wine Advocate suggests 2014 is possibly Bordeaux’s best vintage since 2010. Wine Spectator agreed, calling it a “Goldilocks vintage” that produced “pure and precise reds.”

At our tasting in NYC in January, we fell head over heels for the 2014 Château Angludet. We found ourselves returning three times to the table to confirm our initial love for the wine. Each time it tasted better, so we started negotiating immediately with Benjamin Sichel, who was at the table pouring the wine. We peppered him with questions, and the man who took the handoff from his father in the 1980s began telling us about the history of the château.

Situated at the heart of the prestigious appellation of Margaux, the Château Angludet is surrounded by two Cru Classé properties (Château du Tertre and Château Giscours) and is just an 8-minute drive to the legendary Château Margaux. The name Angludet means “angle of high land,” and the estate dates back to 1150, one of the oldest in the Médoc.

Benjamin told us that the 2014 growing season had a near perfect spring and fruit set gave way to a humid summer with pockets of rain. He initially prepared for another year of intense vineyard and canopy management. But then a sunny September and October ushered in perfect conditions. Cabernet Sauvignon grown in Margaux benefited the most, as grapes experienced even, slow ripening through to harvest that made for deeply concentrated wines.

Inky black with ruby hues at the rim. The fruit is fresh, soft, and ripe, with flavors of black cherry, bittersweet chocolate, spice, leather, tobacco, and menthol. The midpalate is strikingly long and will give the wine a very long window of drinking pleasure. Drink now to 2030.

Plenty of critical consensus here: 2014 is the best vintage in Bordeaux since 2010, and no region shines brighter than the Cabernet Sauvignon-based wines from Margaux. Matching 91 points from James Suckling and Wine Enthusiast. The last 120 bottles of 2014 Château Angludet have been earmarked for WineAccess, drawn DIRECTLY from the cellars in Bordeaux.