Château Angélus appeared in the James Bond movies Casino Royale (2006) and Spectre (2015).
In Casino Royale, Angélus – apparently the 1982 vintage but my eyesight is not that good – is seen while Bond (played by Daniel Craig) dines with Vesper Lynd (Eva Green) in a railway dining car on his way to the Casino Royale in Montenegro.
Angélus 2005 – still beyond my eyesight – is featured in Spectre (again on a train) when Bond dines with Madeleine Swann (Léa Seydoux).
The de Boüard de Laforest family that owns Angélus has been there for seven generations, with roots in Saint-Émilion going back to 1564.
Until the mid 1980s, L’Angélus (it became plain Angélus in 1990, to place it under “A” rather than “L” in computerized lists) was a well-regarded Saint-Émilion estate that consistently produced good wine – 1934, 1952, 1964, 1966, 1970, 1979, 1980, 1982, and 1984 were excellent examples of the vintage – but seldom made anything special. New oak barrels were not used until 1980 – before then vats were used – with 2/3 new oak from 1980 on.
However, since his first vintage in 1985, Hubert de Boüard de Laforest, aided by his cousin by marriage Jean–Bernard Grenié, has propelled Angélus to the forefront of “modern” Saint-Émilion, with promotion from Grand Cru Classé to Premier Grand Cru Classé in 1996 and then to Premier Grand Cru Classé (A) in 2012.
Jean–Bernard Grenié has stated that the laws that prohibit wine advertising in France led Château Angélus to pursue a strategy of product placement in movies.
Angélus’s agent in Paris had a connection to the Broccoli family – producers of the Bond films – and sent them a case of wine.
An arrangement for Château Angélus to appear in James Bond films was subsequently agreed.
