-
99
/ 100
Wine Enthusiast -
98
/ 100
James Suckling -
98
/ 100
Vinous -
98
/ 100
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate -
97
/ 100
Wine Spectator
Red
Classification
Merlot Blend
Variety
2010
Vintage
750ml (Bottle)
Bottle Size
France
Country
Bordeaux, Saint-Emilion
Region
13.0%
Alcohol %
15 Plus Years
Cellaring
Scores
99 / 100"A big, bold wine with unbelievable power and concentration. Low yields and a dominance of Cabernet Franc have produced an immensely concentrated wine. Still very young, this magnificent wine holds the promise of great aging."
- Wine Enthusiast
98 / 100
"The nose is so deep and almost endless with dried strawberries, blueberries, and incense. Citrus too. Some prunes. Full body, with chewy yet polished tannin quality and tension. Beautiful focus and balance with a richness and delicacy at the same time. Something almost Burgundian. It's the purity of fruit. 55% Cabernet Franc and 45% Merlot."
- James Suckling
98 / 100
"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 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
98 / 100
"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 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."
- Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
97 / 100
"Very sappy and intense, offering racy red licorice, red currant and violet notes, with nice taut acidity and a long, minerally finish. Combines power and austerity, with excellent drive. For those who like backbone in their wines."
- Wine Spectator
Tasting Notes
This world famous property is superbly situated on the limestone hillsides of the village of Saint Emilion and consistently produces benchmark examples of the appellation that age effortlessly for 50-100 years. Planted to 50% Merlot and 50% Cabernet Franc, the extremely old vines of the estate average 50+ years, and produce very low yields giving Ausone amazing concentration and elements of terroir. Ausone is named after the Roman poet Ausonius, who lived from A.D. 320-395, and was known to have a vineyard in Bordeaux. Ausone is made in such limited quantities that it is difficult to find commercially, but we make every effort to obtain the wine in every vintage. Robert Parker declares: 'Ausone is living up to its mythical status!'
Tasting Profile
- Light
- Full
- Low Tannin
- Tannic
- Sweet
- Dry
- Low Acidity
- High Acidity