2016 Château Ausone, St Emilion, Bordeaux

2016 Château Ausone, St Emilion, Bordeaux

Product: 20168008785
Prices start from £4,436.00 per case Buying options
2016 Château Ausone, St Emilion, Bordeaux

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Available by the case In Bond. Pricing excludes duty and VAT, which must be paid separately before delivery. Storage charges apply.
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6 x 75cl bottle
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3 x 150cl magnum
BBX marketplace BBX 1 case £4,500.00
BBX marketplace BBX 1 case £4,500.00
1 x 150cl magnum
BBX marketplace BBX 1 case £1,725.00
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Ex-Chateau
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Description

The vineyards of Ch. Ausone are located on a high southeast slope overlooking the medieval ramparts of St Emilion. Bearing a dark ruby hue, the nose is exquisite with notes of blueberry, damson, blackcurrant and cherry. On the palate, there is a pleasing vitality, with velvet-like tannins and a concentrated, intense finish.

Blend: Cabernet Franc 50%, Merlot 50%

wine at a glance

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Critics reviews

Lisa Perrotti-Brown MW100/100
The 2016 Ausone is a blend of 50% Cabernet Franc and 50% Merlot and it has a deep garnet-purple color. It is incredibly closed to begin, offering glimpses of juicy blackberries, plum preserves, and cedar chest, before unfurling to offer a whole array of exotic spices, sandalwood, violets, and notes of crushed rocks, plus a touch of smoked meats. Medium to full-bodied, the palate is so closed and tightly knit to start off, delivering peeks at mineral, floral, and opulent spice accents, with a rock-solid structure of grainy tannins and bold freshness, finishing with epic length. It needs a good 8 years+, but should cellar for at least 40 more!

Lisa Perrotti-Brown MW , The Wine Independent (December 2022) Read more
Wine Advocate99/100
The 2016 Ausone is a blend of 50% Cabernet Franc and 50% Merlot. Deep garnet-purple colored, it's quite closed at first glance, slowly unfurling to reveal the most incredible perfume of violets, chocolate-covered cherries, warm black plums, Black Forest cake and roasted nuts with suggestions of charcuterie, wood smoke and cedar chest. The medium to full-bodied palate offers a quiet intensity of flavors that grow in the mouth to unveil layer after layer of black and red berries intertwined with beautiful savory notions framed by firm yet velvety tannins, finishing with epic length and amazing energy. It practically tingles on the palate!
Lisa Perrotti-Brown - 30/11/2018 Read more
James Suckling97-98/100
This is one of the most subtle and ethereal Ausones I have encountered in a while. It’s a full-bodied wine, yet one that’s very refined in texture, all the way to the extremely long finish. Shows real dignity and character. A throwback to the great years of the 1950s.
James Suckling - April 2017 Read more
Decanter99/100
The incredible succulent power in Ausone puts a different perspective on other wines, as it so often does. The epitome of perfumed finesse. The yield is up at 40hl/ha, high for these poor limestone soils, and the remarkable clarity of expression that runs right through the delicate but fleshy raspberry and smoke-tinged palate is helped by a pH of 3.5 (compared to 3.6 last year). In my book this counts as one of the truly exciting signatures of the vintage and that is only boosted by the limestone terroir. Stunning, with enormous persistency and a finish that just doesn't want to quit. From a blend of 50% Merlot and 50% Cabernet Franc, aged in 80% new oak barrels.  Drinking Window 2027 - 2050
Jane Anson - Decanter.com - April 2017



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About this WINE

Château Ausone

Château Ausone

Château Ausone is a wine estate in St Emilion on the Right Bank of Bordeaux. It takes its name from the poet Ausonius, who is thought to have owned a villa where the estate stands today – just outside the medieval village of St Emilion. Ausone’s vineyards sit atop St Emilion’s limestone plateau and extend in terraces down the côtes. There are just over six hectares of vines planted today, mostly Cabernet Franc along with Merlot. The team practice organic and biodynamic viticulture though without certification.

The estate belongs to the Vauthier family, led by Alain Vauthier and his children, Pauline and Edouard. In 1955, Ausone was ranked at the very top of the St Emilion classification – as Premier Grand Cru Classé A – alongside Château Cheval Blanc. In 2021, both Ausone and Cheval Blanc announced that they were voluntarily withdrawing from the classification.

Ausone is known for its structured, long-lived wines. A second wine, Chapelle d’Ausone, was introduced in the 1990s. The Vauthier family also own a number of other properties nearby in St Emilion, including Château Moulin Saint-Georges, Château La Clotte and Château de Fonbel.

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St Émilion

St Émilion

St Émilion is one of Bordeaux's largest producing appellations, producing more wine than Listrac, Moulis, St Estèphe, Pauillac, St Julien and Margaux put together. St Emilion has been producing wine for longer than the Médoc but its lack of accessibility to Bordeaux's port and market-restricted exports to mainland Europe meant the region initially did not enjoy the commercial success that funded the great châteaux of the Left Bank. 

St Émilion itself is the prettiest of Bordeaux's wine towns, perched on top of the steep limestone slopes upon which many of the region's finest vineyards are situated. However, more than half of the appellation's vineyards lie on the plain between the town and the Dordogne River on sandy, alluvial soils with a sprinkling of gravel. 

Further diversity is added by a small, complex gravel bed to the north-east of the region on the border with Pomerol.  Atypically for St Émilion, this allows Cabernet Franc and, to a lesser extent, Cabernet Sauvignon to prosper and defines the personality of the great wines such as Ch. Cheval Blanc.  

In the early 1990s there was an explosion of experimentation and evolution, leading to the rise of the garagistes, producers of deeply-concentrated wines made in very small quantities and offered at high prices.  The appellation is also surrounded by four satellite appellations, Montagne, Lussac, Puisseguin and St. Georges, which enjoy a family similarity but not the complexity of the best wines.

St Émilion was first officially classified in 1954, and is the most meritocratic classification system in Bordeaux, as it is regularly amended. The most recent revision of the classification was in 2012

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Merlot

Merlot

The most widely planted grape in Bordeaux and a grape that has been on a relentless expansion drive throughout the world in the last decade. Merlot is adaptable to most soils and is relatively simple to cultivate. It is a vigorous naturally high yielding grape that requires savage pruning - over-cropped Merlot-based wines are dilute and bland. It is also vital to pick at optimum ripeness as Merlot can quickly lose its varietal characteristics if harvested overripe.

In St.Emilion and Pomerol it withstands the moist clay rich soils far better than Cabernet grapes, and at it best produces opulently rich, plummy clarets with succulent fruitcake-like nuances. Le Pin, Pétrus and Clinet are examples of hedonistically rich Merlot wines at their very best. It also plays a key supporting role in filling out the middle palate of the Cabernet-dominated wines of the Médoc and Graves.

Merlot is now grown in virtually all wine growing countries and is particularly successful in California, Chile and Northern Italy.

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