Château Ausone, St Emilion, 2023

Name: Château Ausone, St Emilion
Brand: Château Ausone
Price: 2640 GBP

Available Vintages

all 2022 2023 2024

justerini & brooks tasting note

Alain Vauthier's flagship estate arguably possesses the greatest terroir in Bordeaux. The steep limestone slopes that lead up to the Chateau are planted with 55-year-old vines that regularly produce quite exceptional, ethereal, complex, even intellectual wines. Crafted from 40% Merlot and 60% Cabernet Franc, the 2023 certainly has the architecture of a great Ausone. There's a real sense of scale and intensity here as well as layers of unctuous fruit married to a vivacious lifting acidity and imposing framework of tannins. If it all pulls together as we assume it will during élevage, this could be a very serious Ausone. Scents of iris, violets, pot pourri, herbs, creme de mûre, cigar smoke and earth waft from the glass, followed by waves of luxuriant yet taut fruit. A wine of vigour and complexity.

critic reviews

98-100/100Lisa Perrotti-Brown,The Wine Independent

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.

DRINKING WINDOW 2030 - 2060

date of review 05/2024

97/100Jane Anson,Inside Bordeaux

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.

DRINKING WINDOW 2032 - 2050

date of review 05/2024

96-98/100Neal Martin,Vinous

The 2023 Ausone was picked September 14 to 30 and matured for a planned 20 months. It has a wonderful bouquet that is very floral in style and perfectly controlled, perhaps more refined than the 2022 (which incidentally had a degree more in alcohol). The palate is medium-bodied with a silky smooth entry, finely tuned with impressive mineralité. It just gently "rolls out" on the languorous finish. This is a more understated Ausone compared to recent vintages, but it exudes sophistication and could easily surpass the Vauthiers' 2022.

DRINKING WINDOW 2028 - 2060

date of review 04/2024

95-97/100Yohan Castaing,Robert Parker Wine Advocate

The 2023 Ausone reveals an incipient bouquet of violet, smoke, dark wild berries, spices and cherries, all beautifully interwoven with creamy new oak. Medium to full-bodied, layered and concentrated, with a rich chassis of tannin, it has a vibrant core of fruit and a long, mineral, vanillin-inflected finish. At 60% Cabernet Franc and 40% Merlot, this ranks alongside the 2014 vintage as one of the most Cabernet-dominant Ausone vintages of recent years, and it will mature for 20 months in new oak barrels.

DRINKING WINDOW 2025 - 2055

date of review 04/2024