Ausone 2020

This is powerful and blows away much of the competition with its depth and layers. This needs you to pull up a chair, take a beat, and let the flavours unroll. There is so much density to the blueberry, bilberry and smoked raspberry fruits that they start out knitted down, then as the oxygen opens them up the body of the wine widens and becomes fleshier and creamier, adding chocolate and mocha notes. The limestone scrape is there in spades through the finish, and this is a cleverly constructed wine. As ever Ausone is just a masterclass in how to take apart and then put back together a terroir. Great stuff. First year of official conversion to organic farming. 100% new oak, some in 30hl oak casks. Could go up after tasting in bottle, a potential 100 points.Drinking Window 2028 - 2048

50% Cabernet Franc, 50% Merlot. Cask sample.Deep and intense with mineral, dark fruit and chocolate notes. Initially broad across the palate then firm, long, fresh and structured. Plentiful tannins but very fine and enrobed in generous fruit. Powerful but elegant with loads packed into the wine. Striking potential.Drink 2030 – 2050

(50% M, 50% CF; 66% harvest; 26hl/ha; 14.5% ABV; 100% new)Dense and with a beautifully defined pure, floral, and subtly black-cherry-sweet nose; rich, full, fresh, and very finely tannic within its restrained profile; there is nothing pronounced here, just a beautiful core of mineral-infused, black-cherry fruit, very limestone-marked, long, delicate, graceful, and transparent, always mouthcoatingly fragrant, and with great persistence. Absolutely benchmark, top-notch, limestone-plateau St-Emilion, with its characteristic combination of delicacy and power, more reminiscent of the best red Burgundies. A wine of exceptional subtlety and scope allied to a beautiful fruit presence. Probably accessible relatively early but, of course, with years of perfumed pleasure down the decades. 2035–60+.

The 2020 Ausone, which has slightly more Merlot than usual, was picked from September 14 to 29 and raised for 20 months entirely in new oak before bottling in mid-July, according to the lunar calendar. It has an intense bouquet with blackberry and boysenberry fruit, pain grillé and background scents of licorice. Very mineral-driven. The palate is medium-bodied with pliant tannins and a fine backbone, pure with impressive tension. Satin texture with a dash of cracked black pepper surface with time in the glass. Persistent in the mouth, perhaps without fully developing that knockout crescendo on the finish, though that might evolve with bottle age. Still, this is an outstanding Ausone. Drink 2026-2055.

The 2020 Ausone was picked at 37hl/ha (a little bit less than 2019 according to Pauline Vauthier) on 14 and 19 September for the Merlot, 23 and 29 September for the Cabernet Franc, matured in entirely new barriques with a light toasting. This 2020 has a tightly wound nose at first, needing more encouragement than other recent vintages. It then, almost reluctantly, reveals intense black cherry, blueberry and violet aromas. Maybe this is not as hedonistic as other years? The palate is medium-bodied with succulent, ripe tannins and a fine bead of acidity. Now the more opulent Ausone comes through, albeit succinctly controlled, with lightly spiced red fruit and a finely proportioned and quite persistent finish. Sophisticated and classy, this rather brilliant Ausone will mature with grace and style. 2030-2065.