Château d’Angludet

The château

Angludet takes its name from the knight Bertrand d’Angludet, who built his house here in the 12th century, and it appears on Cassini’s map of 1758. In 1791, when its owner Pierre Legras died, the estate was divided among his 4 heirs, and the division cost it dearly. In 1855 the cru d’Angludet was split between MM. Fleuri, d’Anglade and Legras, about 25 hectares of vines in 3 hands, and it was not among the wines ranked that year, although Armand d’Armailhacq, a Pauillac grower whose La culture des vignes, la vinification et les vins dans le Médoc came out that same year, put it among the 5th growths in his own ranking. Charles Cocks and Édouard Féret, whose Bordeaux et ses vins was the reference book of the Bordeaux trade, still found 2 Angludets in 1886, Paul Promis with 60 hectares, 22 of them vines making 45 tonneaux (the old Bordeaux measure of a crop, 900 liters, or 4 barrels), and Jules Jadouin making 70 to 80, and blamed the neglect that followed the division. By 1893 Jadouin had put the 4 parts back into one hand: 130 hectares, 55 of them vines. The place had long been known as La République, and it still had whole plots of Carmenère more than 100 years old, a variety already rare then.

Peter and Diana Sichel, wine merchants, fell for the place in 1961 and moved in, and their son Benjamin Sichel runs the vineyard and the cellar today. Angludet joined the Union des Grands Crus de Bordeaux in 1980. The 30 hectares of vines lie in one piece on a gravel ridge inside the Margaux appellation, ringed by forest and meadow and crossed by a stream, on Garonne gravel and pebbles brought down from the Pyrenees, in a sandy matrix over tertiary limestone. They are planted 46% Cabernet Sauvignon, 41% Merlot and 13% Petit Verdot, 30 years old on average.

The whole vineyard has been farmed biodynamically since the early 2000s and is certified Haute Valeur Environnementale (High Environmental Value, the French state’s environmental certification for farms) at level 3 and ISO 14001; in 2017 Benjamin Sichel planted more than 200 fruit trees among the vines. The grapes are picked and sorted by hand and fermented in concrete vats, whose thermal inertia lets the temperature move slowly, and the wine spends 12 months, 50% of it in French oak barrels, 30% of them new, and 50% in terracotta amphorae. La Dame d’Angludet is the second wine.

At a glance

Appellation

Margaux

Commune

Cantenac

Classification

No classification; not ranked in 1855

Owners

The Sichel family, since 1961

Direction

Benjamin Sichel

Vineyard

30 hectares in one piece on a gravel ridge; vines 30 years old on average

Soil

Garonne gravel and pebbles in a sandy matrix, over tertiary limestone Terroir of Margaux →

Grapes

Cabernet Sauvignon 46%, Merlot 41%, Petit Verdot 13%

Farming

Biodynamic since the early 2000s; Haute Valeur Environnementale, level 3; ISO 14001; 200 fruit trees planted in 2017

Cellar

Picked and sorted by hand; concrete vats; 12 months, 50% in French oak, 30% new, 50% in terracotta amphorae

Wines

Château d’Angludet; La Dame d’Angludet

In history

Split among 4 heirs in 1791; reunited by Jules Jadouin by 1893, 130 hectares with 55 of vines