Angélus tells St Emilion ‘it’s not me, it’s you…’

Angelus letter
Pic: PxHere

Fake Booze is delighted to reprint the full ‘Dear John’ letter that Chateau Angélus pinned to the fridge door of the St Emilion appellation earlier this week.


‘It is with a heavy heart that we find ourselves duty-bound today to announce our resignation from the St Emilion Grand Cru Classé A classification. Once an honourable, efficient classification, the appellation has recently become mired in controversy and legal proceedings.

Contrary to what some have suggested, not all of them are to do with Château Angélus. Though given recent vintages it is fair to say that many of these legal actions are likely to age much longer than our wines.

These proceedings, we feel, are very much getting in the way of the timeless key messages of the appellation – which are earning us all, Château Angélus in particular, vast sums of money, and keeping the small châteaux in their place.

#sorrynotsorry

We are immensely grieved to see that the Saint-Emilion classification has become a vehicle for antagonism and instability. In this it is very different from the rest of the Bordeaux system, which is typified by harmony and reasonableness.

Given recent turbulence we feel that St Emilion would benefit from a period of calm and reflection. And we hope to facilitate this by resigning at a quiet time of the year and publishing a lengthy diatribe about how awful everything is.

Our resignation is very much a point of principle. Specifically, that having been fined for manipulating the system, we no longer felt able to belong to a club that would have us as a member.  

It is very much not a case of sour grapes. Which, we all know, do not belong in the media, but in the fermenting vats of the many châteaux that have badmouthed us over the last six years. We would like to place on record that these attacks were thoroughly unjust. Even when they were true.

Just bad friends

We shall continue to pursue the values we hold dear with all the humility that only eight generations of aristocratic breeding can bring to the proceedings, and to promote the Saint Angélus… apologies, St Emilion – appellation to global markets naïve enough to think that the classification still has any relevance.

Rest assured that St Emilion remains a place that is very close to our wallets. And we are sure that the classification has a great future in continuing to to pull the wool over consumers’ eyes. 

But in the interests of sustainability, we request that the last family to leave the appellation turns off the lights.’


If you want more ‘true letters’ why not read the apology that Brewdog’s managers wanted to send to their staff last year. Or if you want more Bordeaux click here to read about how a big house got sold by a rich family to someone else with lots of money.

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