Château Ausone 2018

La Revue du Vin de France

The Wine Independent

VertdeVin

The nose is elegant, precise and offers a small power (full of control), a small richness beautifully racy and a small concentration (controlled). It reveals notes of pulpy blackberry, pulpy violet plum and small notes of violet associated with touches of small ripe black fruits, small notes of violet associated with touches of small ripe black fruits as well as fine hints of lily, Sichuan pepper and a discreet hint of spices, mild tobacco. The palate is fruity, beautifully precise, elegant, racy and offers freshness, gourmandize, delicacy, deepness, fat, a beautiful freshness/minerality, structure (full of precision) as well as a fine grain. On the palate this wine expresses notes of pulpy/juicy blackberry, juicy cassis, small notes of violet plum associated with touches of lily, fresh lilac, a touch of fresh/juicy blueberry as well as hints of small juicy/fresh red fruits, hints of nutmeg, sweet spices, very fine hints of tonka bean and mild tobacco (in the background). Good length. Tannins are elegant and well-built.

Jeff Leve, The Wine Cellar Insider

With a depth of flavor that feels like they managed to pack a magnum into a single bottle, this wine is all about its intensity and incredible sense of minerality and purity. Rich, fabulously concentrated and deep, the seamless finish which surpasses 60 seconds is loaded velvet drenched black, blue and red fruit, spice, smoke, earth, licorice, crushed rocks, stones and oyster shells. The cashmere tannins, and vibrancy is awe inspiring. The wine blends 60% Cabernet Franc and 40% Merlot, 14.5% ABV. If you have the money, there are few wines at this level of quality produced from any vineyard in the world.

Vinum Wine Magazine

Robert Parker Wine Advocate

The 2018 Ausone is a blend of 60% Cabernet Franc and 40% Merlot. Deep garnet-purple in color, rather predictably, the nose is almost completely shut-down on first sniff, taking considerable aeration to begin to reveal its jaw-dropping perfume of ripe black cherries, wild blueberries and plum preserves, leading to suggestions of candied violets, molten chocolate, licorice and crushed rocks with subtle cedar and pencil lead hints. The medium to full-bodied palate (14.5% alcohol) is so tightly wound and nuanced at this stage, it requires a lot of focus unravel all that is going on here. In short: a lot. The ripe, rich, black and blue fruit layers eventually give way to the beautifully cerebral earthy/minerally subtext, carried by fantastically well-knit tension, delivering an incredibly long, foundation-shaking finish. If the earth doesn't move when you drink this, you're probably not doing it right.

I didn’t have much of a chance to speak with Alain and Pauline Vauthier during my visit for Primeurs. It was a crazy busy day at Ausone when I came—the place completely crammed with anxious visitors from all over the world waiting to taste. That was fine though, because I was at Ausone back in October when Pauline was managing the 2018 fermentations and had a chance to head into the winery with her then to see her method of “gentle infusion” in action; it involves a very clever means of using a forklift to gravity feed the juice onto the skin cap and allowing it to slowly trickle down through the skins. Tasting the 2018s during Primeurs, I was overcome with the very satisfying sense that she absolutely nailed it back then.

Château Ausone—one of the most envied vineyards in all of Bordeaux—truly excelled itself in 2018. Perched on Saint-Émilion’s famous limestone plateau and calcareous clay slope, it clearly showed its pedigree under 2018’s challenging conditions. The Vauthiers have produced a wine from this place and time that is at once intense, superbly nuanced and bursting with energy but has a rock-solid structure of perfectly ripe tannins. And it has tons of freshness that comes firstly from maintaining the vineyard’s signature low pH. (The pH was 3.65 this year, a little high for Ausone, but still incredible considering how many wines are over 3.8.) Secondly, that freshness comes from sparks of bright, crunchy fruit intermingled with rich, seductive layers. The alcohol, at 14.5%, grounds all the otherwise ethereal components with well-poised gravitas. Astonishingly great wine—brava!

Decanter Magazine

Pauline Vauthier is the 11th generation of the family to be producing wine here. It's always such an incredible wine, and as ever you can see that they are playing a different game from so many others. The juice, the slate, the minerality, the drip-drip-drip of freshly squeezed berries, spice and barely-there tannins, the sapidity on the finish. Amazing! Harvest ran from 25 September to 9 October. 3.6pH. 100% new oak. 98-100 points.

James Suckling

Aromas of blackberry, black cherry, licorice, iodine and dried shitake mushroom. Opens and changes to violets and lavender. Full-bodied and tight with creamy and refined tannins that run the length of the wine and takes you down into the depth of the wine. Needs years to open yet it’s already so gorgeous to taste. Try after 2027.