Mark Angéli

The man, the myth, the legend, Mark Angéli, used to be a stone mason before herniating a disc on his back which stopped him from continuing his work. One of his final clients paid him in Sauternes which changed the course of his life, inspiring him to seek an education in winemaking and search for vineyards to call his own, finally coming across a plot in Anjou in 1990. Now perhaps the most notorious trailblazers of modern Anjou, Monsieur Angéli has helped many winemakers enter the region, even finding parcels and investment for start-up vignerons. The vineyards total 7 hectares and straddle 3 appellations: Anjou, Coteaux de Layon and Bonnezeaux, the latter two reserved only for the production of moeulleux according to AOC rules. However, after years of producing moeulleux, it was by chance that Angeli started to make dryer and dryer wines, such as ‘La Lune’, after having to harvest earlier due to the threat of rain during harvest. In order to reduce the risk of phylloxera, Angéli plants his vines on soils with the highest concentration of sand. He has adopted an eclectic range of techniques in the vineyard, such as increasing the density of vines and replacing rootstocks with ones that will facilitate the vines to grow strong enough to ripen grapes and not rely on the addition of sugar in the winery. Other biodynamic practices include spraying the vines with horn silica spray as a way of persuading the vines to grow towards the light and warding of fungal diseases. The wines are pure, intense and different - unicorns in a world of donkeys.