France

Cabernet Sauvignon

Merlot

Cabernet Franc

Ch. Ausone

Chateau Ausone Premier Grand Cru Classe A Saint-Emilion Grand Cru

Bordeaux

Saint-Emilion Grand Cru

A blend of 60% Cabernet Franc and 40% Merlot, the 2023 Ausone has a pH of 3.63 and a deep garnet-purple color. It is very mute and reticent to show its personality to start, needing a lot of shaking and pleading to coax out a series of intense scents: fresh blackberries, violets, licorice, pencil shavings, and tar, leading to an undercurrent of Sichuan pepper and fertile loam. The medium-bodied palate has wonderful tension and is incredibly taut and tight-knit, offering glimpses at layers of mineral and floral accented fresh blackberry flavors. It is textured by incredibly ripe, fine-grained tannins, delivering a very long finish, laced with mineral sparkles.

by Lisa Perrotti-Brown MW

(barrel sample)
Ruby red. Aromatic nose with herbs, black pepper, paprika, licorice,blueberries and spice. Fresh acidity. Blueberries, blackberries, licorice, cherries, bell pepper, herb and minerals. Polished ripe tannins. Very long. 97-99p 

Just amazing wines again from Château Ausone.

Château Ausone was classified as Premier Grand Cru classe A in the original classification in 1955. They have held this position until they withdrew from the classification system in 2022 along with Chaval Blanc stating that they did not agree with the adjusted method for the classification.

Premier Grand Cru Classes A or not, they still make just as good wines

Expert

Density and well-cushioned fruit, another stunning vintage of a wine that somehow manages to make an effortless impression, edges of cloves and grilled sandalwood, full of nuance and capturing the aromatics depths and heights of the vintage, gorgeous. 100% new oak. Philippe Baillarguet cellar master, Vauthier family owners, organic certified in the vineyard.

Inside Bordeaux

Deep garnet-purple colored. Soars out of the glass with fragrant notes of black cherries, black raspberries, violets, and sassafras, with touches of forest floor and fragrant soils. The medium-bodied palate is wonderfully silky with seamless freshness supporting the delicate red berry and floral layers, finishing long and perfumed. Stunning.

The Ausone 2022 is a blend of 50% Merlot and 50% Cabernet Franc, with a yield of 38 hl/ha. The Merlot was harvested between 5th and 7th September and the Cabernet Franc between 21st and 27th September. It has a pH of 3.57, a TPI of 66, and it is opaque purple in color. The wine is completely closed on the first smell, requiring a lot of swirling to begin to release fragrant notes of dried roses, licorice, cast-iron pan, and cumin seed, giving way to a core of Morello cherries, wild blueberries, and redcurrant preserves. The full-bodied palate is an exercise in elegance, featuring very fine-grained, very firm tannins and breathtaking tension to frame the tightly wound red and black fruit layers, finishing with epic length and mind-blowing complexity. Holding its cards close to its chest, it's a hard wine to read at first glance, yet there's a lot of nuanced sub-text bound within the rock-solid structure. I see this slowly unfolding over many years to become a wine for the ages.

The last year that Ausone will be recorded as a Premier Grand Cru Classé A, and it delivers fragrant tomato leaf and peony aromatics, studded with fennel and white pepper, cold ash, saffran, oyster shell, pomegranate and brambled loganberry frruit. Medium bodied plum colour, plenty of depth through the mid palate. This is right up there with the very best of 2021, and manages to convey the signature of the limestone soils at Ausone, with their grip and understated sense of playfulness. Clear winemaking skill on display, not trying to outrun the vintage, while still bearing the fingerprints of a cooler year. Harvest September 30 to October 6, 90% new oak (down from the usual 100%), 2nd year conversion to organic, Philippe Baillarguet cellar master. Average vine age 55 years. A tough year for this stable of wines - with no release of Simard, Haut Simard, Fonbel nor Moulin St Georges (final decision has been taken over ageing, although a few bottles will be kept at the estate for library purposes). 23hl/h yield.

The 2020 Ausone, composed of 50% Merlot and 50% Cabernet Franc, is deep garnet-purple in color. After a shake or two, the nose erupts with the most gorgeous perfume of juicy blueberries, baked black plums, and black raspberries, followed by nuances of pencil shavings, iron ore, rose oil, and black truffles with a waft of cedar. The medium to full-bodied palate is taut with shimmery, energetic black and blue berry layers, framed by super-ripe, super fine-grained tannins and seamless freshness, finishing with epic length and a whole firework display of floral, mineral, and bright, pure fruit notes. This is incredible!

The 2019 Ausone, composed of 65% Cabernet Franc and 35% Merlot, is deep garnet-purple in color. It opens with notes of redcurrant jelly, black raspberries, and mulberries, followed by evocative scents of star anise, lilacs, and Oolong tea with a waft of iron ore. The medium to full-bodied palate is elegant, lively, and mineral-sparked, featuring bright, energetic fruit and a long ferrous finish.

How does perfection taste like? Ausone is a Château that I seldom taste. This was just awesome!

Ruby red. Floral exotic nose with blueberries, blackcurrant, light bright leather. Nuanced. Fresh acidity. Vibrant and playful. Complex with loads of black and red berries. Layered and velvety with polished tannins. Very long.

Drink from 2040-2070. If you can keep it...

Smooth texture, turmeric and clove exoticism, fleshy cassis and raspberry fruit studded with white pepper. A lovely sense of lyricism, this has an ethereal, moreish quality that makes it stand out in the vintage. These are the kind of years where Ausone proves just how far it can stand out from its siblings in the appellation, but this is starting to close down - I have had more expressive bottles of this vintage, and I recommend leaving it for a good three or four years from now. 80% new oak, harvested 23-29 September.

Hefty, structured tannins, dark chocolate, espresso and liqourice root. This is powerful, the quality and complexity in full evidence from beginning to end, unrolls in waves and uses its pummice stone and slate-edged structure to climb towards a mouthwatering finish. A wine that I have tasted twice in the past two months, and you feel it is both barely showing its hand, and yet aleady effortless asserting its brilliance. 40hl/ha, 80% new oak. Harvest October 10-19, 3.5ph.

Enticing from the first moment, with undeniable depths of blackberry and damson fruit, given definition by bitter black chocolate, pencil lead and liqourice. A gorgeous wine that manages to tame the more exuberant edges of the vintage. Beautifully expressive, with a creamy texture that is pretty irresistable, and a brush of peony flowers and gunsmoke as it opens up that showcase the limestone soils and the Cabernet Franc dominance. 85% new oak, 3.6ph.

The 2014 Ausone is deep garnet-brick in color. A herbal waft of dried sage opens the nose, leading to a core of kirsch, redcurrant jelly, and crushed rocks with a touch of charcoal. The medium to full-bodied palate delivers bright red berry preserves flavors with herbal accents and a fine-grained texture, finishing long and lifted.

Where Ausone produces 100 barrels in a normal vintage, they made just 50 in 2013, and this careful selection has paid off in terms of the quality in the glass. There is both depth and grip, and estate signature. You find a lovely smoky edge, together with raspberry, reducrrant, salted cracker, saffron, white pepper and clear finesse. What proof of the quality of this estate. I tasted this wine around six months ago in a vertical, and it performed less well than in this horizontal, showing clearly that it stands out among its peers in the vintage, but not in the lineup of the estate's own wines. You'll go a long way to find a more enjoyable 2013 St Emilion. 85% new oak, 22hl/h yield. Harvest October 2-6.

Ruby colour, rose edging, smoked sandalwood and sweet black cherry, with a subtle build of power and concentration through the palate. This has juice and finesse, with edges of tobacco and rose petals, and a sharper nuance of fresh mint leaf. At a great moment to begin drinking, but has decades ahead. 100% new oak. A late harvest between October 9 and 17.

Vibrant ruby colour, liqourice on the attack, cloves, smoke, blackberry purree, plenty of depths and nuance here, with a saline limestone character that gives punch and grip through the palate. There is a creaminess as it opens, and this is less austere than some St Emilion limestone-domiant wines right now, with the Ausone magic starting to assert itself. 100% new oak.

This is precise, carved, confident, with palma violets, peonies and crushed roses floating out of the glass, luscious and yet carved, creamy fruits that are encased in steel. This one is nowhere near ready. A wonderful wine, huge persistency, with tannins that suggest decades ahead. This 2010 is still pretty reserved on the nose, even austere, but feels so effortlessly put together. Reminds me of the architectural angles that I was struck by during the 2010 vintage En Primeur tastings. Winemaker/cellar master Philippe Baillarguet, overseen by Pauline Vauthier and father Alain, 100% new oak for ageing.

Ausone captures the exuberance and joy of 2009 without ever putting a step over the line - get ready to reach for the superlatives. Still young at 15 years old, but all the finesse and nuance is in place, with huge depths to the berry fruit, plenty of anis and fennel spice, saffron and pumice stone, by turns soft then steely. Hard to think of a better St Emilion 2009, and I would bet on it continuing to deliver huge pleasure over the decades to come. Winemaker/cellar master Philippe Baillarguet, overseen by Pauline Vauthier and father Alain, 100% new oak for ageing.

Tasted during the Bordeaux Mentor Week at a tasting hosted by the Fondation Terroirs et Paysages Culturels (Ausone is a founding member of this group). The entire series of wine was exceptional, but this still managed to stand out head and shoulders above the rest. Just a total lesson in what depths and nuances can be achieved in an almost-20-year-old wine that has stayed true to its limestone terroir. It opens with creamy raspberry and cassis fruit, laced with white truffles, incenes and citrus, so elegant and poised, then performs a push and pull of acidity and tannins as it stretches out through the palate, narrowing to a saline-scrape of pummice stone and oyster shell. A wonderful moment to begin drinking, but it's going nowhere soon. 100% new oak, Alain Vauthier owner.

Solbær, lær, paprika, utrolig presis og ren nese, på smak, høy konsentrasjon, perfekt modne tanniner, kremete munnfølelse med luft, mer blåpreget frukt.

Category	Red wine
Vinmonopolet no.
Producer	Ch. Ausone
Vintages	2023
Country	France, Bordeaux, Saint-Emilion Grand Cru
Bottle	75 cl

Alcohol	%
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Sugar	g/l

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