In Chateau Ausone, Alain Vauthier and his family create one of the finest and most elegant clarets, almost Burgundian in its style and production volume.
Dense, complex and ripe, with layers of savoury and rich fruit. Texturally it is on a different level, with plushness and finesse. This is an Ausone that lets the minerality lead the way, speaking of the phenomenal terroir. Great purity of fruit and a fabulous balance between the rich red and black fruits lead the drinker deep into a true understanding of the vintage. There is not the sheer weight and density of the previous two years but the energy and finesse are unarguable. Nimble and muscular. - April 2018
Blended of 55% Cabernet Franc and 45% Merlot, the deep garnet-purple colored 2017 Ausone offers up slowly emerging notes of crushed black plums, blackberries and mulberries with nuances of anise, violets, new leather and unsmoked cigars plus suggestions of black olives and truffles and a touch of cast iron pan. Medium to full-bodied with firm, very finely grained, super ripe tannins and an uplifting backbone of freshness perfectly supporting the profoundly layered, tightly wound yet incredibly intense fruit, it finishes very long with mineral accents and compelling tension. - Lisa Perrotti-Brown, erobertparker.com, April 2018
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. www.vinous.com
Love the perfume and pretty, transparent fruit. Purity. Raspberries. Full-bodied, extremely focused and bright with clarity and beauty. Juicy and savory. Chalk and light chocolate at the finish. Try after 2024, but gorgeous to taste already.
Darkest purple crimson. Smoky, lightly charry aroma from the oak and an inviting mineral/dusty quality and fresh, pure cassis fruit shines out. Succulent, the oak swallowed by the fruit on the palate. Concentrated and so full of fine, pure dark fruit. The tannins are compact but also somehow sweet, giving a firm but very smooth framework for the fruit. Long and fresh. Very good, and impressive harmony already. - Julia Harding, jancisrobinson.com, 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.
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.
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