2018 Chapelle d'Ausone, St Emilion, Bordeaux

50% Merlot, 40% Cabernet Franc, 10% Cabernet Sauvignon. Barrel sample.

Black core, purple rim. Intense, dark fruited and expressive on the nose. There's the lovely pencil-shavings character of Cabernet Franc and the generosity of Merlot. Very ripe cassis but not overripe. Deep and full in the mouth, slightly sweet and sour at the moment, needing time to mesh. The finish has juicy freshness and a smooth, deep tannin texture—Chewy and juicy on the finish. 

Drink 2024 - 2030

The 2018 Chapelle D'Ausone is another second wine that can easily compete with most estates’ top wines. Coming from a blend of 50% Merlot, 40% Cabernet Franc and 10% Cabernet Sauvignon that will spend 20 months in oak, it tastes like a mini Château Ausone with its beautiful limestone minerality and sweet black fruits, spice, and graphite aromas and flavors. Full-bodied, concentrated, with building structure, it’s a serious second wine that’s going to benefit from 3-5 years of bottle age and keep for two decades.

20 months in barrel, 100% new oak, as per Ausone, but pure limestone so it just sucks it up. Normally 20,000 bottles of Ausone and 5-6,000 bottles of Chapelle. A high Silver. And a yield now up to around 37-40hl/ha.

You definitely get the brushed damson fruits and slight grilled notes of oak, but it is oh-so carefully handled, and just gives the most gorgeous blend; 80% young vines up to 10 years old planted at 12,000 vines per hectare), plus some lots that didn't make it into the first wine. That makes this an extremely successful Chapelle with just so much personality and depth. Such incredible precision here to the freshly crushed mint leaves. This is an expensive second wine, but it absolutely delivers the 'wow' factor.

Drink 2025 - 2040

The 2018 Chapelle d'Ausone is made of 50% Merlot, 40% Cabernet Franc and 10% Cabernet Sauvignon.

Deep garnet-purple in colour, as impenetrable as this wine's big-brother grand vin wine is, this is the precocious, show-off younger sibling. It comes skipping out of the glass with bright, cheery scents of redcurrant jelly, black raspberries, stewed plums and Black Forest cake, giving way to suggestions of rose oil, dusty soil and garrigue.

Medium to full-bodied, the palate is jam-packed with juicy black and red berry layers, framed by beautifully ripe, finely grained tannins and tons of freshness, finishing long and perfumed. Delicious right now; if money's no object, buy this and the grand vin. The 2018 Ausone will take a good few years to come around, but this second wine offers a true enough taste of that epic feast of a wine to come.

Drink 2022 - 2040

Chapelle d'Ausone might very well be the best second wine in Bordeaux in 2018, and it is certainly a lot more compelling than many top cuvées. Inky, deep and voluptuous, the Chapelle shows all of the natural suppleness of Merlot to great effect. Soft curves and silky tannins round things out in style. It is a drop-dead gorgeous beauty from the Vauthier family. Simply magnificent.

Drink 2025 - 2038

The 2018 Chapelle d’Ausone was poured after the La Clotte, though in retrospect, I would have reversed the order because the aromatics here are more backward and sultry. They uncurl to reveal black cherries, briar, crushed rock/basalt and very light violet scents, all incredibly well-focused. The palate is medium-bodied, sporting another silky, satin-like texture from the Vauthier family. Offering wonderful weight and density allied with amazing focus and poise, this is a brilliant Second Wine that is so delicious that it pains me to advise that it deserves 3 to 4 years in a bottle. The citric/blood orange aftertaste knocks you off your feet. Superb.

Drink 2024 - 2040

A red with blackberry, blueberry, iodine, muscle shell and hot stone character on both the nose and palate. It’s full-bodied and very tight with a compact palate of beautiful fruit with a minerally undertone. It is very long and polished—fine yet structure.

Try after 2025