Ausone

2009 Chapelle d’Ausone. Deep purple. Enticing bouquet of haw, dark roses and early cedary characters with sweet overtones. Lovely warm velvety fullness in the mouth, imparting a structured supple intensity. Very well proportioned, just a tad short. On par with classified growths. Excellent. Tasted November 2021.

2011 Chapelle d’Ausone. Dark fruits tinged with capsicum on the nose, exuding a mild sweet fragrance. Medium-bodied, displaying a beautifully supple presence, rather slick and understated with early secondary characters. Just a tad short. Reflects the vintage. Tasted October 2022.

2012 Chapelle d’Ausone. A blend of 65% cabernet franc, 25% merlot and 15% cabernet sauvignon from younger vines aged about 15 years vinified in lightly toasted new oak for 20 months. Rather opaque with some bricking. Shy at first on the nose, proffering only glimpses of dark roses, haw and summer fragrance though eventually growing in confidence, exuding a distinct feminine glow that is very correct. The medium-full palate is rather brightly lit with a predominance of red fruits, very sleek and rounded with seamlessly integrated acidity that imparted good verve and balance, finishing well. Tasted March 2021.

2015 Chapelle d’Ausone. Deep crimson. Quite richly imbued with camphor and red fruits on the nose and full palate, exuding a warm ripeness amid overtones of enamel. Very lively with supple intensity, just a tad spicy towards the finish. Tasted November 2022.

2016 Chapelle d’Ausone. Brilliant purple. Still cloaked in vanillin although this cannot hide the rich layering of raspberries and red fruits on the palate, still tightly coiled with a healthy tone of earthy minerals, very finely nuanced with excellent acidity, just a tad stern at the finish. Tasted June 2019 at the château.

1976 Château Ausone. Still deep crimson in colour, proffering a very gentle earthy pungency on the nose with deeper notes of black berries and dark currants. Medium-bodied. Fleshy with good concentration of fruit with a lovely maturity, displaying complex characters amid tertiary tones of capsicum. Finished well with good linearity though it turned slightly dryish. Tasted January 2020.

1982 Château Ausone. This is a truly beautiful Ausone, delicious and open with a lovely plushed complex of blueberries and raspberries and full of other subtle nuances, beautifully proportioned, masculine yet absolutely harmonious and silky with great acidity, producing a wonderful thrill on the palate. A sensational Ausone, caught at its absolute peak and still going strong. Tasted November 2016.

1983 Château Ausone. Displaying an evolved crimson, this medium-bodied Ausone has an open relaxed character, basking in delicious red fruits that carried a certain sur-maturite, poised with rounded suppleness. Has an air of rusticity in spite of all its elegance. Tasted December 2020.

1986 Château Ausone. This wine was rather backward and relaxed at the first pour, displaying predominant red fruits, rather bright with a mild medicinal tinge, still carrying good levels of acidity, soft and subtly structured. Over time, it fleshed out with notes of old leather and red plums with an easy elegance, gaining in gradual intensity with a trace of sweetness, rather delicious, certainly not in danger of drying out, cloaked in feminine tones with an eventual note of soy. Like all top crus, this wine doesn’t call attention to itself, neither voluptuous nor a stand-out. An understated Ausone on song. Tasted June 2016.

1990 Château Ausone. Still deeply coloured though surprisingly restrained on the nose, almost haughty. The palate displays a great abundance of dark fruits and currants imbued with refined acidity and very finely detailed graphite elements that impart superb verve and supple intensity, trailed by overtones of cordite and capsicum all the way to its lasting finish. Still youthful after thirty years. Outstanding. Tasted December 2020.

1994 Château Ausone. Still rather dark with some evolution, exuding a classic glow of mature claret with a very fine peppery quality amid traces of ferrous elements and capsicum. Medium-bodied. Supple with a very relaxed feel, imbued with very good concentration and purity of dark fruits and wild berries with emerging notes of red fruits over time. Delicious. Charming in its own way even though it doesn’t quite possess the layering and opulence of the best vintages. Tasted February 2020.

1995 Château Ausone. This wine opens with a greatly evolved hallowed glow of an aged claret, fleshing out with great definition and focus on the palate, amply layered with cool ripe fruit that exude sublime acidity with subtle intensity, very supple and elegantly structured. Excellent. Tasted November 2018.

1995 Château Ausone. Deep garnet core, proffering a subtle fragrance of dark currants and black berries. Fully mature. Highly supple and integral, generously endowed with seamless layers of fruit structured with detailed tannins. Still wonderfully fresh and youthful, carrying plenty of verve amid overtones of tertiary characters. This is tasting even better than before. At its best. Tasted April 2024.

1996 Château Ausone. Raspberries, dark and red currants dominate on the nose with sweet delicious overtones. The palate was tinged with a touch of dryness amidst an abundance of earthy ferrous minerals that recalled cordite, concentrated in dark fruits with a certain sternness, turning more velvety with some lovely juicy sweetness as it gained further depth and intensity. Utterly delicious. Tasted July 2019.

1998 Château Ausone. Deep red, almost dark, revealing a dense mixture of dark and red fruits, beautifully intertwined with rich intense minerality and a touch of earth. The initial impression was that it was more developed on the nose than palate, where it was appreciably soft, with just the right level of extraction, the predominant merlot component already beginning to develop secondary characteristics. Less of structure, but totally seamless and complex, showing perfect delineation from start to finish, ending with sexy velvety tannins, becoming quite mellow with time. Tasted July 2010.

1998 Château Ausone. Still displaying a deep color, this wine has mellowed considerably compared with a previous tasting in 2010, medium-bodied and superbly harmonious on the palate where it is most beautifully proportioned and unassuming, wonderfully subtle in structure with everything in place, enticing one to imbibe sip after sip, not at all showy. This has become quite the complete wine and will continue to hold for another three decades. Outstanding. Tasted November 2016.

1998 Château Ausone. Rather darkish in tone and character, this wine opens with an astounding bouquet of luxuriant black fruits and currants that delivered rich layers of delicious ripe fruit and earthy minerals across all dimensions on the palate, exerting a vibrant high-toned complexity with lively acidity, much more open than before, displaying early secondary nuances. Still yet to peak. Superb. Tasted December 2020.

1998 Château Ausone. Deep opaque purple, proffering a hesitant nose at first of ripe wild berries tinged with Chinese medicinal powder. This cleared after a few minutes to reveal a succulent depth of dark cherries and black currants, deliciously ripe, eventually fleshing out with exciting intensity as it exuded a powerful glow of cedary characters amid splashes of capsicum. One senses more of merlot than cabernet franc. Likely to evolve at a glacial pace over the next two decades. Tasted October 2021.

1998 Château Ausone. Earthy pungency. Attractive lift of red plums, dark currants and ripe wild berries that impart a cool freshness on the medium-full palate with excellent definition and precision. Immaculately proportioned and balanced with subtle verve. Doesn’t call attention to itself. Tasted November 2022.

1998 Château Ausone. Deep garnet. Darkly delicious, open with an inviting warmth of glorious black fruits and currants, wonderfully ripe, painting the palate with velvety succulence and early tertiary characters that impart superb mouthfeel and vigour. At its prime. Tasted August 2023.

2006 Château Ausone. Deep impenetrable darkness, big and tannic though undoubtedly rich in dark currants, grapefruit and dark cherries with a high-toned earthy minerality, slightly peppery, finishing with medicinal traces. Needs many more years to unravel its enormous potential. Tasted December 2017 at FICOFI’s Les Palais des Grands Crus in Paris.

2008 Château Ausone. Quiet on the nose, somewhat closed though the palate is dominated by strong ferrous elements with good concentration of fruit and acidity but stern in demeanour, dark in tone throughout its length. Going through an awkward stage now. Tasted December 2017 at FICOFI’s Les Palais des Grands Crus in Paris.

2008 Château Ausone. This wine exudes generous layers of red fruits, red plums and gentle cherries from its ruby depths, displaying some early complexity with smoked characters, fleshy and rounded with good inner detail and fine balance, distinctly feminine. Tasted June 2019 at the château.

2012 Château Ausone. Deep garnet red. Shy, allowing only glimpses of floral fragrance with a touch of vanillin, taking its time to develop a gentle glow of wild berries and haw, becoming more dimensional on the nose. The medium-bodied palate is imbued with very good presence red fruits and currants that exude a certain warmth, greatly enhanced by the superb balance between the fruit and minerally elements, seamlessly integrated with well-resolved tannins and fine acidity, finishing with excellent linearity and persistence. Not showy at all. Clearly a wine that would reward further cellaring patience even as it is approaching its drinking window. Tasted March 2021.

2015 Château Ausone. A blend of 60% cabernet franc with 40% merlot. This wine displays a fabulous deep impenetrable ruby in the glass, exuding a gentle bouquet of dark roses, red fruits and wild berries of excellent ripeness and purity, not at all overdone. Yet to put on weight but this wine is already harmonious with a feminine character, displaying silky textures with highly supple tannins and great linearity all the way to its lasting finish. Barrel sample tasted in September 2016 at the château.

2018 Château Ausone. Showing a brilliant deep purple, this unfinished wine proffered a distinct note of rye that imparted a feel of dry heated gravel on the nose, richly layered with raspberries, dark cherries and red currants that imparted wonderful ripeness and purity of fruit, rounded with striking acidity and beautifully integrated and balanced, never for once yielding its subtle power as it finished with excellent linearity and persistence. Most lovely. When it is already so complete barely six months in barrel, the bottled result in 2021 will be even more stunning. Outstanding! Barrel sample tasted in June 2019 at the château.