2011 | Château Ausone | Saint-Emilion

Combining power with great elegance, this wine displays superripe, rich fruits that are restrained by velvet tannins and the delicious perfumed character from Cabernet Franc in the blend.

Reviews:

• Wine Advocate: Its bigger sibling, the 2011 Ausone increases the level of intensity, elegance, complexity, richness and length. Nearly a mirror image of the La Chapelle, just with more going on, the Ausone boasts a more saturated purple color, and the wine has everything in large, intense proportions. The finesse and delicacy of all its components are what make it such a remarkable wine.

• James Suckling: This is extremely open and aromatic, with exotic fruit. Extremely wild. Full body, firm, silky tannins and a long, focused finish. This is very persistent and long. A top wine for the vintage. Muscular and toned. The old vines of cabernet franc make the difference here. 55% cabernet franc and 45% merlot.

Producer Information

Château Ausone is a highly regarded wine estate in the Saint-Émilion region of northeastern Bordeaux. It is 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. 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. Ausone and its neighbor Château Bélair-Monange were owned by the same family for most of the 20th Century and shared Ausone's cellars. Despite its centuries-old history, Ausone has only been owned by three different families, though not always without contention: in the 1990s, a legal feud regarding inheritance plagued the estate. Ausone's vineyard is on an elevated southeast-facing slope that is uncommonly steep for the region. Sheltered to the north and the west, the vineyard was spared from the devastating effects of the 1956 frosts that ruined vines and vintages in many other parts of Bordeaux. Since the 1990s, Ausone has consistently received high critical praise, peaking with 100 points from US wine critic Robert Parker for the 2000 vintage. A very limited production of fewer than 2000 cases annually makes Château Ausone one of the most expensive and sought-after Saint-Émilion wines.

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