2011 | Château Ausone | La Chapelle d'Ausone

This complex wine has rich tannins and layers of new wood atop dark black berries. At the same time, it is rounding out well, offering spice, sweet acidity and a terse freshness that is infectious. It's a very fruity wine for the medium term.

Reviews:

• Wine Advocate: The beautiful second wine is Alain Vauthier's 2011 La Chapelle d'Ausone. It possesses a dense ruby/purple color along with the nobility, class, finesse, precision, purity and copious blue and black fruits intermixed with a floral component, good minerality, and a medium-bodied, intense, rich personality. Never heavy or over-bearing, this is a beauty. As I have written many times in the past, the Vauthiers are making a "second wine" that is greater than many of the outstanding wines produced at this estate in the 20th century. This wine should drink well for 15 or more years.

• James Suckling: Wonderful aromas of dried berry and light black truffle. Full body, intense tannins and a long, flavorful finish. This shows backbone and depth. A blend of 60% merlot, 30% cabernet franc and 10% cabernet sauvignon. Second wine of Ausone. Try in 2020.

Producer Information

Château Ausone is a highly regarded wine estate in the Saint-Émilion region of northeastern Bordeaux. Its red wines are viewed many as some of the greatest of the appellation (and of the wider region as a whole). Although it was once one of the prestigious few Saint-Émilion producers with Premier Grand Cru Classé A status – and one of only two estates (the other being Château Cheval Blanc) to hold this status since the inception of the classification in 1955 – it, along with Cheval Blanc and others, famously withdrew from the ranking in 2022. Nonetheless, it is still regarded by many as one of the greatest wines of the appellation (and of wider Bordeaux). The wider estate is relatively small compared to other top rated Bordeaux châteaux, and its seven-hectare (17-acre) vineyard is planted almost entirely to Cabernet Franc and Merlot. A small amount of Cabernet Sauvignon appears in its second wine, Chapelle d'Ausone. The estate is named for the Fourth Century Roman poet Decimius Magnus Ausonius, who owned extensive property in Bordeaux, including some vineyards. However, the modern château and estate, which sit on a highly coveted spot just south of Saint-Émilion town on the edge of the Saint-Émilion plateau, date back to the 18th Century.

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