Chateau Ausone (Futures Pre-Sale) 2021

Professional Ratings

• 97 James Suckling
  Full-bodied, but so elegant and fresh, with a silky, elegant tannin texture. Very deep and expansive. Lots going on already with plenty of perfume. Blueberries, cloves, lavender and some wild-berry notes. Dark cocoa, too. Some espresso character at the end. Wonderful interplay of spices and fruit. Long. It keeps going.
  Barrel Sample: 96-97
• 95 Decanter
  Vibrant red berry notes on the nose, fragranced damson, blueberry, plum, some wild flower and dried flower touches. Smooth and so silky on the palate, round and gently mouth filling with graphite edges that appear almost straight away. You get that nuance of wet stone and chalk but so well balanced with charming, juicy cherry and blackcurrant fruit on the palate. So perfectly smooth and balanced, silky tannins give the powdery finish while the well-balanced acidity gives the energy underneath. It’s incredibly captivating because you get these waves of flavour and a gentle lick of stone that reminds you you're in St-Emilion on pure limestone. Such verticality and an aerial quality to this with flavours that continue to lift the entire way through. Sustained but graceful with a shy sense of power. Brilliant winemaking for the vintage. Drinking Window: 2028 - 2050.
  Barrel Sample: 95
• 94 Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
  The 2021 Ausone was the fruit of a challenging growing season, the estate's second year in organic conversion coinciding with notable diseases pressure, but the resulting blend of 65% Cabernet Franc and 35% Merlot (featuring a touch more Cabernet Franc than normal) was one of the most seductive wines of the en primeur campaign, its exotic perfume and crystalline purity evoking the great Ausone vintages of yesteryear and offering an unvarnished representation of this superb limestone terroir. In bottle, the 2021 remains an excellent wine, but at least out of the gates, its élevage (in 90% new oak, predominantly from Demptos and Taransaud, with four rackings) has taken the lead, intermingling aromas of vanilla, spices and toast with discreet notes of minty dark berries, cherries, petals and pencil shavings. On the palate, it's medium to full-bodied, layered and fleshy, with an ample and enveloping core of fruit that retains its energy and purity but which gives way to a finish marked by somewhat assertive barrel tannins. Given the inherent quality of the wine and the terroir, I'm sure time will be kind to it...
  Rating: 94+