Château Ausone, 1er Grand Cru Classé, St Emilion, 2012

Alain Vauthier and consultant oenologist Michel Rolland work the finest terroir in St Emilion, arguably the best terroir in Bordeaux. The perfect south facing slopes on deep clay and limestone with asterias have produced extraordinary even epic wines since 1996. There will be some 18,000 bottles of this sensational 2012 produced. Cabernet Franc dominates the blend with 45% Merlot. As with the Chapelle, the wine is fermented and macerated in thermo-regulated wooden vats before being aged in new oak barrels for roughly 20 months. Quite a wild, exotic bouquet of earth, potpourri, fine herbs and crème de mûre. The palate is taut, precise and multilayered with lots of minute berries and stoney minerality. This is clearly the product of exceptional terroir; it is nuanced, deep, graceful, lithe and structured. A wine of real breed and nobility, with wonderful definition, striking complexity and authoritative, graphite tannins.