Region
France > Bordeaux > Saint-Emilion Grand Cru
Producer
Chateau Ausone
Grape
Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Petit Verdot
Appellation
Saint-Emilion
Classification
Premier Grand Cru Classe A
Chateau Ausone Premier Grand Cru Classe A, Saint-Emilion Grand Cru
· 2010·
WO score
WO score is the average of all critic scores for this wine
Tasting notes
Deep garnet in color, the 2010 Ausone opens with notes of sweaty leather, iron ore, Marmite toast and prunes with hints of dried herbs and charcuterie plus a medicinal waft. Full-bodied, the palate has a very racy line of acidity and well-played, chewy tannins supporting the maturing fruit, finishing with an herbal lift.
Tasted blind at the Southwold Bordeaux 2010 tasting. The Ausone 2010 has an intoxicating bouquet with outstanding definition and precision, a light marine influence of seaweed and brine that becomes more accentuated with time. The palate is very precise with fine tannins, quite sharp dark blackberry and wild strawberry fruit, a dash of white pepper sprinkled over the back palate that builds to an elegant spicy finish. Not the "biggest" wine against its peers, but it oozes class. This is an intoxicating Saint Emilion from Alain Vauthier and his team. Tasted January 2014.
The 2010 Ausone struck me as another brilliant, potentially perfect wine, which should come as no shock to people who have been following Vauthier's work over the last decade or more. Backward and intense, this wine offers up notes of crushed chalk/rock mineralilty interwoven with blueberry, black raspberry and cassis as well as some graphite and vanillin. It is incredibly... read more/less
...rich but at the same time precise, fresh and vivacious. This is a super wine, but it will require enormous patience from its potential suitors. Forget it for a decade and drink it over the following 50+ years.
One of the other perfectionist, compulsive producers in St.-Emilion is Alain Vauthier, who is now capably assisted by his daughter.
The 2010 Ausone struck me as another brilliant, potentially perfect wine, which should come as no shock to people who have been following Vauthier's work over the last decade or more. Backward and intense, this wine offers up notes of crushed chalk/rock mineralilty interwoven with blueberry, black raspberry and cassis as well as some graphite and vanillin. It is incredibly... read more/less
...rich but at the same time precise, fresh and vivacious. This is a super wine, but it will require enormous patience from its potential suitors. Forget it for a decade and drink it over the following 50+ years.
Vinous
Tasted: 07/01/2013
Drink:
Author: Stephen Tanzer
Deep, saturated ruby-red. Musky aromas of black cherry, black raspberry, coffee, violet, Christmas spices, minerals and exotic oak, complicated by graphite minerality. Boasts uncanny intensity, calcaire energy and power on the palate, but there's also a deeply creamy texture brought by this superripe vintage. Boasts extraordinary inner-mouth aromatic character and finishes... read more/less
...with great tannic spine. The building, endless finish boasts great clarity and perfume. A transcendent Ausone in its combination of power and elegance. This stunning wine will be improving in bottle long after I've expired.
Vinous
Tasted: 07/01/2013
Drink:
Author: Stephen Tanzer
Deep, saturated ruby-red. Musky aromas of black cherry, black raspberry, coffee, violet, Christmas spices, minerals and exotic oak, complicated by graphite minerality. Boasts uncanny intensity, calcaire energy and power on the palate, but there's also a deeply creamy texture brought by this superripe vintage. Boasts extraordinary inner-mouth aromatic character and finishes... read more/less
...with great tannic spine. The building, endless finish boasts great clarity and perfume. A transcendent Ausone in its combination of power and elegance. This stunning wine will be improving in bottle long after I've expired.
Tasted at the chateau. The Ausone 2010 is a blend of 55% Cabernet Franc and 45% Merlot matured in new oak for 20 months. It has a very introverted nose to the point where if you served them blind, I am sure you would prefer the Chapelle d'Ausone. There is a brooding intensity here: dark cherries, boysenberry, crushed stone, fresh mint... The palate is medium-bodied with ripe,... read more/less
...filigree tannins. It is supremely well balanced with (again) perfectly pitched acidity. The finish is grippy, dense and a little spicy " vitamin like intensity. The Cabernet Franc is the “guv'norâ€, the Merlot taking a back seat role. Masculine and quite profound, this is a superlative Ausone. 18,000 bottles produced. Tasted November 2012.
Alain Vauthier's wines have been so remarkable since he acquired full control of Ausone that readers probably feel I have thrown my critical wits away. However, the proof is in the tasting, and the 2010 Ausone is unquestionably extraordinary. There are 1,500 cases of this beauty, which exhibits an inky/blue/purple color as well as an exotic, seamless bouquet of incense, Asian... read more/less
...spices, blueberries, raspberries and blackberries. Full-bodied with a striking liqueur of minerality as well as a magical combination of complexity, substance and nobility, it reveals softer tannins than I expected for this vintage, so perhaps it will be more accessible in its youth than recent Ausone vintages have tended to be. It is another prodigious effort from Vauthier that should be drinkable in 6-8 years and keep for a half century.
Alain Vauthier's wines have been so remarkable since he acquired full control of Ausone that readers probably feel I have thrown my critical wits away. However, the proof is in the tasting, and the 2010 Ausone is unquestionably extraordinary. There are 1,500 cases of this beauty, which exhibits an inky/blue/purple color as well as an exotic, seamless bouquet of incense, Asian... read more/less
...spices, blueberries, raspberries and blackberries. Full-bodied with a striking liqueur of minerality as well as a magical combination of complexity, substance and nobility, it reveals softer tannins than I expected for this vintage, so perhaps it will be more accessible in its youth than recent Ausone vintages have tended to be. It is another prodigious effort from Vauthier that should be drinkable in 6-8 years and keep for a half century.
A blend of 55% Cabernet Franc and 45% Merlot, picked between 5th and 15th October. The nose takes some coaxing from the glass; raspberry, a touch of Dorset plum, wild strawberry and with further aeration there are touches of orange rind developing. The palate is medium-bodied with silky smooth tannins, very focused, hints of dark chocolate on the entry, wonderful mineralite and poise towards the seamless finish with a creamy veneer. Long in the mouth, this is a sensual Ausone. Drink 2015- Tasted March 2011.
Vinous
Tasted: 05/01/2011
Drink:
Author: Ian D'Agata
(a 55/45 blend of cabernet franc and merlot; 3.53 pH; 14.5% alcohol; reportedly from a crop level of just 26 hectoliters per hectare; a 67% selection for the grand vin Inky, glass-staining purple. The captivating nose offers very intense, pure aromas of dark plum, blackcurrant, balsamic coffee, bay leaf and violet. Supple and soft on entry, but boasts a huge structure... read more/less
...underlying the ripe, glossy black fruit, graphite and ink flavors. Finishes smooth, creamy and very long. Destined to be a very long-lived Ausone, this is one of the top wines of the vintage and probably even better than the blockbuster 2009 made here. Ausone is one of the few properties that seems to have had great success harvesting its merlot late (October 9 through 15), more or less at the same time as its cabernet franc (October 13-16). But as Pauline Vauthier pointed out, they were the first to harvest in their immediate neighborhood.
Contact details
Address
Château Ausonne, Saint Emilion, Bordeaux, France
Château Ausonne, Saint Emilion, Bordeaux, France