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Château Ausone 2016

Château Ausone, Bordeaux, France

Château Ausone
Bordeaux France
  • 100
    Points
  • The 135 best
    of 3 290 954
    wines globally
  • 13 Pros of
    14 recommend
    this wine
339 100
  • Taste
  • Moment

  • Country ranking ?

    110

  • Producer ranking ?

    2

  • Decanting time

    4h

  • When to drink

    from 2025

  • Food Pairing

    Mushroom Risotto

The Tb points given to this wine are the world’s most valid and most up-to-date evaluation of the quality of the wine. Tastingbook points are formed by the Tastingbook algorithm which takes into account the wine ratings of the world's best-known professional wine critics, wine ratings by thousands of tastingbook’s professionals and users, the generally recognised vintage quality and reputation of the vineyard and winery. Wine needs at least five professional ratings to get the Tb score. Tastingbook.com is the world's largest wine information service which is an unbiased, non-commercial and free for everyone.

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Pomerol / St Emilion / Olivier Berouet of Ch Petrus describes 2016 as “a vintage that is only comparable to itself.” The clay substrata played an important role in maintaining sufficient soil moistures. Typically the wines are round, supple and richly flavoured with beautiful aromatic complexity, fine plentiful tannins, superb fruit definition and mineral length. The wines have incredible dimension and balance. Vieux Chateau Certan is in a lea...

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The Story

Ausone owes its unique quality and longevity to a magic marriage of situation and soil. The steep slopes of the vineyard are arranged like an amphitheatre, facing southeast, which gives perfect exposure and maximum protection, and the soil is a mixture of clay and sand on limestone. When old vines and the ability to pick the entire vineyard quickly, due to the small size, are added to the recipe the result is something special. Ausone grows in...

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Wine Information

2016 Bordeaux in Review / “A Once in a Lifetime Vintage”

By Andrew Caillard MW

The 2016 Bordeaux vintage will be remembered as one of the great years of the 21st Century. I have not been so excited about the prospects of such young wines since the remarkable back-to-back 2009 and 2010 vintages. At that time China was at the zenith of its extraordinary fine wine ascendency where the very top estates, particularly Chateau Lafite, had becom...

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Vintage 2016

Bordeaux 2016 in review “A paradox”

by Andrew Caillard MW

The 2016 Bordeaux vintage will be remembered as one of the great years of the 21st century. I haven't been this excited about the prospects of wines this young since the remarkable 2009 and 2010 vintages. At that time, China was at the zenith of its extraordinary rise of fine wines where the highest estates, particularly Château Lafite , had become a backwater currency. Each man a...

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Tasting note

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Written Notes

Very exotic and fascinating with dark-berry, floral and violet aromas that follow though to a full body that is tight and polished with ultra-fine and driven tannins. They really are amazing. A wine with such strength and finesse at the same time. Confident and real Ausone. A blend of 50 per cent merlot and 50 per cent cabernet franc. Better after 2025.

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  • 98p

2016 Ausone - Deep, dark garnet in color, you are instantly hit with a unique note of flowers and crushed rocks as you first nose the wine. On the palate, it tastes and feels liquefied essences of rocks and perfectly ripe, dark pit fruit and blackberries. The wine has symmetry. Everything is in balance between the fruit, tannins and acidity. The seamless finish, with its non-stop waves of fruit coats your palate in all the right ways. The wine remains with you for over 60 seconds! From a blend of 50% Cabernet Franc and 50% Merlot, this is one of the wines of the vintage. If you have cash, and the time to wait for maturity, this is a future legend in the making! 100 Pts

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  • 100p

Medium deep colour. Red plum, flint, graphite aromas savoury herb spicy oak notes. Lovely richness and volume with pure redcurrant spicy fruits, fine looseknit lacy textures, plentiful new oak and beautiful clear indelible acidity. Really delicious wine with superb pure fruits, density, energy and mineral length. Tasted at Ch Ausone. 97 points 

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  • 97p

Dark purple red with violet hue and black core. A wonderful wine, but a wine to explore with patience. Complex character, initially slightly closed, excellent fruit, dark berries and hints of raspberries, very spicy, incense, cinnamon, vanilla, cloves. Excellent structure, great depth and incredible length, a wine with great precision and purity. One of the best wines of this Primeurs season but also a rather intellectual wine which asks patience and the willingness to explore it. 99+

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  • 99p

25000 bottles made. Deeper nose, blackberries, fruity, some spices, violets, tight, scented behind, blueberries, almost flirting yet restrained. Fresh acidity, ripe tannins, fresh, fruity, structured, refined texture, fresh red berries, darker fruits, spices, detailed and elegant, beautiful balance, long. 96-98

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Information

Origin

St.Emilion, Bordeaux

Vintage Quality

Outstanding

Value For Money

Very good

Investment potential

Good

Fake factory

None

Inside Information

Robert Parker's Wine Advocate 100p / The 2016 Ausone is a blend of 50% Merlot and 50% Cabernet Franc picked 10-14 October and 14-19 October, respectively, at 40 hectoliters per hectare. It is matured in 80% new oak with a light toasting, a move that Alain and Pauline Vauthier have made in recent years just to lessen the impact of the oak. There is a palpable...stateliness about the Ausone this year. It is extraordinarily pure and articulates its terroir as well as any vintage that I can remember over the last 20-odd years. It is not as flamboyant as other Saint Emilions, more correct and precise. The palate is very elegant and precise. I adore the exquisite balance of this Ausone, the precision and fineness of the tannin, the effortlessness that it conveys. This is classy and sophisticated, satin-like in texture with a long and sensual finish. Not an Ausone that is going to blaze across the sky, this is a cerebral, intellectual Ausone that will entrance for many years to come. 

Barrel Sample: 98-100 Points

Decanter 100p

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. 
Barrel Sample: 98-100 Points

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