Chateau Ausone
There is an oft touted theory with claret that the right
bank wines from Saint Emilion and Pomerol are softer and
more approachable in their youth than the serious minded,
cabernet sauvingnon-dominated left bank wines of Margaux,
Pauillac, et al.
Whilst there might be some truth to this generalisation,
like most sweeping statements it is easily contradicted. And
no wine could offer a more sublime foil to this theory than
Chateau Ausone, which remains so resolutely austere and
ungiving in its youth that it makes one question whether it
is in fact a mis-labelled Saint Estephe, yet whose
character, after sufficient bottle age, develops into an
intoxicating and distinctive mix of power and finesse.
Occupying the exalted position, shared only with Cheval
Blanc, of being a Premier Grand Cru Classe A Saint Emilion,
Ausone is situated on steep, south facing slopes with
consistent limestone soils. Unusually, there is no cabernet
sauvignon planted; just an even split of merlot and cabernet
franc vines, with an average age of around fifty years,
which are harvested by hand, before the resulting wine is
aged in 100% new barrels for a period of at least eighteen
months.
Unlike Cheval Blanc, which has achieved a more or less
consistently high level of quality for much of the last
hundred years, Ausone’s reputation declined considerably
towards the middle of the twentieth century. It wasn’t until
the arrival of Pascal Delbeck in the 1970s that this
downward trend was reversed, but subsequent years saw the
chateau rapidly reacquire its old status as a claret sans
pareil.
In more recent years, the estate has come under the
control of Alain Vauthier, commonly described as a
perfectionist, and the man who was at least partly
responsible for our preferred vintage - the 2003. Now, we
hesitate to recommend such a young wine, especially one as
robust and hard-edged as Ausone, and the rather morbid
caveat here is that this is not a wine for those of you who
do not expect to see out another twenty years or so. But for
the extremely patient, young and healthy among you, we would
struggle to think of a wine that will so deeply reward sheer
commitment.
The nose is an extraordinary amalgam of fresh flowers,
summer fruits, purple violets (?) and cherries. There is
richness and concentration to the fruit, yet also an
unexpected lightness that even the young tannins cannot
mask. Whilst lightness and richness may seem to be binary
oppositions, think of the qualities of a perfectly prepared
Belgian chocolate mousse and you will be somewhere near the
mark, in conceptual terms at least. Complementing these
qualities is an underlying savouriness – perhaps even a hint
of herbs, such as thyme.
It is a certainly a serious wine, as exemplified, amongst
other things, by the sheer length of the finish, but it
exhibits a femininity that is wholly different from the left
bank Grand Premier Crus.
We can only wonder what delights will emerge twenty years
from now.
