The deep garnet-purple colored 2017 Ausone is a blend of 55% Cabernet Franc and 45% Merlot. It sashays out of the glass with gregarious scents of baked red and black plums, wild blueberries and boysenberries plus touches of violets, espresso, licorice and melted chocolate with wafts of iron ore and tilled soil. Medium-bodied, the palate is an exercise in poise, featuring beautifully ripe, silken tannins and bold freshness to support the fragrant multi-layers, finishing very long and very minerally. Drink Date: 2024 - 2057.

- Lisa Perrotti-Brown, The Wine Advocate (2020)

Dark ruby with purple accents on the rim, the wine is luxuriant, full bodied, lusciously textured, sensuous and with all that going on, this is also quite refined. The mineral driven, sweet dark red fruits offer an impressive sense of purity. There is persistency and vibrancy on the palate. Made from a blend of 55% Cabernet Franc and 45% Merlot, the wine reached 14% ABV with a pH of 3.5 and represents 80% of the crop. The harvest took place from September 23 to September 29.
- Jeff Leve, The Wine Cellar Insider (April 2018)

The 2017 Ausone is incredibly precise and sculpted, but also tightly wound in the early going - not that that will be a problem for readers who own it and will cellar it. Wild flowers, mint, blood orange and crushed rocks are some of the nuances that open up in the glass, but the 2017 is not in any mood to show all of its cards. Vertical, rich and explosive with tons of inner energy, the 2017 is a truly regal wine, but it also needs a number of years to be at its very finest. Here, too, the Franc (55% of the blend) really shines. This is a stellar showing from the Vauthier family. Drinking Window 2027 - 2057.

- Antonio Galloni, Vinous (December 2019)

From a vintage compared to 2011 and 2014 by the estate, the 2017 Chateau Ausone is a classic blend of 60% Cabernet Franc and 40% Merlot that’s from the pure limestone hillsides just outside the village of Saint-Emilion. This full-bodied, elegant, almost Burgundian beauty offers a terrific seamlessness as well as lots of ripe cassis and black cherry fruits, notes of truffle-laced earth, tobacco, and crushed stone, ultra-fine tannins, and a great finish. This is classic Ausone, with its complexity and elegance paired with plenty of richness and depth. It needs 5-7 years of bottle age and will evolve for 2-3 decades. Maturity 2025-2055.

- Jeb Dunnuck, JebDunnuck.com (February 2020)

The 2017 Ausone was bottled in June 2019. It is blessed with one of the most cerebral bouquets that you will find in this vintage. Nuanced scents of violet and wild heather percolate through the blueberry and cassis fruit. Like the aromatics, the palate is almost pixelated in terms of detail. Cashmere tannins, perfectly integrated new oak and layers of pure fruit. The limestone terroir still shines through this Ausone with intense _mineralité _ towards the seductive finish that lingers in the mouth. Alain and Pauline Vauthier have crafted one of the wines of the vintage. Drinking Window 2024 - 2050.

- Neal Martin, Vinous (September 2019)