x
  • Country ranking ?

    1 103
  • Producer ranking ?

    24
  • Decanting time

    3h
  • When to drink

    now to 2030
  • Food Pairing

    Duck

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The Story

The Léglise family from Libourne founded what is now Château L’Evangile. They were actively involved, around the middle of the 18th century, in building the Pomerol vineyard. L’Evangile appeared in the 1741 land registry under the name of Fazilleau.

At the turn of the 19th century, the estate already had much of its current configuration, stretching over some 13 hectares, when it was sold to a lawyer named Isambert. He renamed the estate “L’Evangile”. In 1862, L’Evangile was purchased by Paul Chaperon, whose descendants, the Ducasse family, remained the property’s owners until 1990. Paul Chaperon went on making the estate becoming famous, and constructed the L’Evangile in the style of the Second Empire. In the second edition of Cocks Féret in 1868, L’Evangile is registered and is considered as a “Premier Cru du Haut-Pomerol”.

Upon the death of Paul Chaperon around 1900, his descendants ran the estate until Louis Ducasse took over the property, which was then in decline and damaged by the frosts of 1956. He put forth great efforts in renewing the vineyard and restoring the L’Evangile name. In 1982, his widow, Simone Ducasse, continued the family’s role in running the estate.

In 1990, Domaines Barons de Rothschild (Lafite) acquired L’Evangile from the Ducasse family. DBR was interested in bringing sustained care to the operation. DBR’s initial influence included a more refined selection of the fine wines, and the creation of Blason de L’Evangile as a second wine. Efforts also included enhancing the vines’ health with a restoration and renewal plan partially completed until 1998. The complete renovation of the vat room and the cellar which was finished in 2004 allowed the property to complete its new configuration.

The estate occupies a very strategic position. It is bordered to the north by the vineyards of Château Pétrus, and is separated from Cheval Blanc in Saint-Emilion to the south by nothing more than a secondary road.


The surface area is of 16 hectares composed of sandy clay soils with pure stones, with the bedrock featuring iron oxide. The grape varieties are made up of Merlot (80%) which contributes to the fruity flavour and body, as well as the unmistakable suppleness; Bouchet, the local name of Cabernet Franc is included (20%) for its finesse. Traditional techniques are used. Production is limited and harvesting and other work carried out throughout the year is done manually.

The vineyard is managed by the Director of the Domaines Charles Chevallier, assisted by Operations Manager Jean Pascal Vazart.

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Wine Information

Vintage: 1982 Bordeaux / James Suckling

The 1982 vintage in Bordeaux changed the wine world as well as changed my life. It was the first vintage I tasted from barrel as a young wine writer working for the American magazine The Wine Spectator, and I was amazed how gorgeous the quality of a young red could be from barrel.
I remember the first barrel samples I tasted during the summer of 1983 at Chateau Prieure-Lichine with the late wine author and vintner Alexis Lichine. The wines were so fruity with soft and rich tannins. They seemed too drinkable for a young wine, yet Lichine who had over forty years of experience tasting young wines told me the wines were “exceptional” and “some of the greatest young wines ever produced.”

He had invited some of his winemaking pals from the Medoc to a lunch at his chateau following the tasting. And he kept telling them, which included such names as Bruno Prats (then Cos d’Estournel), Anthony Barton (Leoville-Barton) and Jean-Eugene Borie (Ducru-Beaucaillou) that young writers like myself were the future of the region and that they had to make me understand that 1982 was a great year. He was upset that the New York Times and some other magazines had come out saying that the new vintage was not outstanding do to it seemingly early drinkability.
It was also a time an American lawyer in his mid-30s began writing full time on wine, creating a newsletter called The Wine Advocate. Many say Robert Parker built his career on advocating the greatness of Bordeaux’s 1982 vintage, although he obviously did much more.

More importantly, 1982 vintage marked a big change in the way Bordeaux was produced. It underlined fruit and ripe tannins in reds as well as a slightly higher level of alcohol and lower, or less strong acidity – higher pH. This is what gave the wines such wonderful texture, or drinkability in their youth.
It was a big change from most vintages before 1982 that produced hard and tannic wines that needed years, even decades to soften. The 1982 vintage became a model vintage for red Bordeaux in the future, and arguably for the wine world at large. Think of all the fruit-forward reds that are produced today in the world – for better or for worse. Alcohols are at least two, sometimes three or four degrees higher. Tannins are stronger yet riper. And natural acidities are lower. Chapitalization – adding sugar to the fermenting grape must to increase alcohol – seems a thing of the past.
“Young wines are so drinkable now,” said Alexander Thienpont, the winemaker of Pomerol’s Vieux-Chateau-Certan and Le Pin. The latter made its reputation on early drinkability. “It’s what people expect in a modern wine today.”

I believe some of the change with the 1982 was due to the “California” like growing conditions the Bordelias spoke of at the time. The summer was extremely hot and sunny. The harvest was warm and mostly clear of precipitation. Grape yields were high with many of the best wine properties making more wine per hectare than set by French authorities. In fact, the late Jean Pierre Moueix of Chateau Petrus always told me that the 1982 vintage would have been at the same level as the 1945 or 1949 vintage if yields had been lower.

Yet, the experience of the growing season and harvest in 1982 made a whole new generation of winemakers in the region understand the importance of picking grapes later and riper. They understood early on when wine critics such as Parker and myself as well as members of the US wine trade enthused so much about the 1982 reds from barrel. This also was the beginning of the popularization of barrel scores used to purchase wines.
The US market was the biggest market to buy top notch Bordeaux with the 1982 vintage. It began a decade of intense buying of Bordeaux in the states with consumers buying first growth and second growth as well as Pomerols and St. Emilion. Americans regaled in the wine’s juiciness and beauty. They also made a shit load of money if they held on to the wines in sold them later. For example, most of the first growths sold for about $40 a bottle in 1983 as futures and some are now as much as $3,500 a bottle. Prices for 1982 are down slightly now, but the price appreciation over 30 years is impressive after 30 years.

So is the quality of the wines still for the most part. I am lucky enough to drink top 1982 on a regular basis, and the best ones never cease to amaze me with their generous and complex fruit and polished, ripe tannins. Bottle variation can be a problem because many of the top names have been bought and sold and stored all over the world, but on a whole it is a treat to drink a great 1982. And the vintage always reminds me of my beginnings in the wine world






By one of geology’s mysteries, the southeast Pomerol plateau features a long line of stones. Three vineyards, including L’Evangile, share this rare soil. The estate occupies a very strategic position. It is bordered to the north by the vineyards of Château Pétrus, and is separated from Cheval Blanc in Saint-Emilion to the south by nothing more than a secondary road.

The surface area is of 16 hectares composed of sandy clay soils with pure stones, with the bedrock featuring iron oxide. The grape varieties are made up of Merlot (80%) which contributes to the fruity flavour and body, as well as the unmistakable suppleness; Bouchet, the local name of Cabernet Franc is included (20%) for its finesse. Traditional techniques are used. Production is limited and harvesting and other work carried out throughout the year is done manually.

The vineyard is managed by the Director of the Domaines Charles Chevallier, assisted by Operations Manager Jean Pascal Vazart.

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Tasting note

color

Deep, Ruby red and Bright

ending

Long, Extensive and Pure

recommend

Yes

taste

Average in Acidity, Perfectly balanced, Concentrated, Well-Integrated, Full-bodied, Rich, Fresh, Perfumed and Medium-Dry

Verdict

Impressive

Written Notes

Dürfte noch quasi ewig leben. Und wer jetzt meinte, dagegen müsste jetzt jeder andere Wein ein armer Wicht gegen sein, der wurde von diesem 1982 l´Evangile aus einer perfekt gelagerten Magnum eines besseren belehrt. Das war ein druckvoller, kräftiger Power-Merlot, hedonistisch schön und animierend mit süchtig machender Nase, am Gaumen trotz ebenfalls immer noch jugendlicher Kraft auch mit verschwenderischem, süßem Schmelz und kräuteriger Würze, auch das ein gewaltiger Wein sehr druckvoll und lang - WT99. Dürfte ebenfalls noch eine große, lange Zukunft haben.

  • 99p

Sweet liquorice aroma with light spice and slight leather and undergrowth, getting more leathery quite quickly. Leaner and tighter on the palate than the nose suggested thanks to the marked – only just balanced – acidity. With time, more minty. (JH)

  • 91p

The truffle essence in this beauty. They just keep on coming. Just behind the truffle, you find flowers, plums, wet earth, forest and tobacco leaf aromas. Silky, intense, polished and complex, the wine moves from truffle, to fruit, to herbs and back to fruit. Everything really lingers and expands. There is a citrus note in the endnote that adds a lot to the complexity. This is fully mature, but should continue offering sublime drinking for years. The wine was made from a blend of 82% Merlot and 18% Cabernet Franc. Picking took place September 16 to September 23. The wine reached 12.85% alcohol with a pH of 3.78. As a side note, for the 1982 vintage, the amount of new, French oak barrels used in close to 10%.

  • 97p

Dark garnet red colour with brick red hue. 82% Merlot and 18% Cabernet Franc are the blend of the vintage. The nose displays a complex aroma reminiscent of black truffles, roasted chestnuts, prunes and hints of elderberry jam, can tobacco and hints of sandal wood. This wonderful wine is on its peak, complex and rich, yet elegant. On the palate a rich wine with fine sweetness, mild acidity, sweet tannins and excellent length, complex flavour repeating the aromatic impression of the nose enhanced by a hint of gingerbread spices. 

  • 98p

In the neck fill. Bright ruby, cheese and hung meat, animal notes. Floral and dark berries. Fresh acidity, ripe tannins, elegant but lacks complexity, feels straightforward and a bit all over the place. 90

  • 90p

Still dense and brick colored in the glass-looks younger than I would have expected. Cedar, leather and earth in the nose, beautiful fruit on the entry, hard to identify it – definitely berry, perhaps some black currant. It holds together well with a slight drying into the finish, where cedarynotes become prominent. Parker scored this one 96 on release, then upped the score to 98 in later tastings. A lovely wine, I think it rates an 89.

  • 89p
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Information

Origin

Pomerol, Pomerol

Vintage Quality

Outstanding

Value For Money

Good

Investment potential

Below Average

Fake factory

None

Glass time

2h
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