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Château Ausone, “Chapelle d’Ausone,” St-Émilion Grand Cru Classé

Other, France 2003 (750mL)
$250.00
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Château Ausone, “Chapelle d’Ausone,” St-Émilion Grand Cru Classé

Bordeaux drinkers know that the ‘second’ wine produced at a great château is often vastly superior to the grands vins of countless others. For those of us who want to experience true greatness but might not be able to go north of $1,000 per bottle to do so, names such as “Forts de Latour,” “Carruades de Lafite,” and yes, “Chapelle d’Ausone” are important ones to know.
The very existence of second wines may owe to business expediency—the lots not selected for inclusion in a château’s grand vin are hardly superfluous waste—but these bottlings, as evidenced by this spectacular 2003 Chapelle d’Ausone, are no afterthoughts. Along with Château Cheval-Blanc, Ausone is at the pinnacle of St-Émilion’s quality hierarchy and is regularly included with the Left Bank’s five “First Growths” in most experts’ rankings of the very best wines in all of Bordeaux. Further, with just seven hectares of vines on the limestone plateau of St-Émilion, Ausone is considerably smaller than most of the Bordeaux élite—a jewel-box property of similar scale to the boutique Le Pin in neighboring Pomerol. When we talk about a wine’s “quality-to-price ratio” on this site, it’s usually in reference to something in the $20 range, but the calculation still applies at this level—and, in my view, that ratio is not just high; it’s off the charts. If you take a quick look, you will notice that Château Ausone 2003 averages around $1,500 per bottle on the market today.
Named for the Roman poet Ausonius, who may have had vineyards here, Ausone is among Bordeaux’s most historic estates. Ruins of an ancient Roman villa have been unearthed on the property, and, in the more “modern” era, the estate has been in the Vauthier family since the 17th century. Current proprietor Alain Vauthier, these days ably assisted by his daughter, Pauline, is credited with propelling the château into Bordeaux’s very top rank, mainly by maximizing the potential of the property’s superior terroir—namely, its position on the limestone-rich côte (hillside) of the St-Émilion AOC, just outside the picturesque village of St-Émilion proper.

At just seven hectares of vines, arranged in a single plot around the château, Ausone is indeed exceptionally small by Bordeaux standards, producing only 1,500-2,000 cases of wine per year. The vineyard is planted to approximately 55% Cabernet Franc and 45% Merlot, on often very steep grades, and the average vine age exceeds 50 years. Like Cheval-Blanc, Ausone represents the greatest heights that Franc reaches in Bordeaux, and its pronounced minerality is always a calling card: this is profound, long-lived Right Bank Bordeaux at its most distinctive.

“Chapelle d’Ausone” was first created in 1995 and is typically 50-50 Cabernet Franc/Merlot, aged in 100% new French oak for two years. Deriving great power from warmth of the 2003 vintage, this bottling shows elegance and precision as well, and still has many years of aging left in its tank. In the glass, it’s a deep, nearly opaque garnet red with some hints of bricking at the rim, consistent with its now-considerable bottle age. Intense and perfumed aromas of black cherry, black currant, tobacco, espresso grounds, cacao, dried herbs, and subtle oak spice all jump from the glass, and carry through onto the rich-yet-balanced palate. Its immense concentration is held in check by still-fresh acidity and fine-grained, maturing tannins. It is a blockbuster, plain and simple, but also perfumed and precise in the manner of the very best red wines of the world, with a finish that lingers seemingly forever. It is just now entering its peak drinking window, but I expect it to offer great pleasure through 2025 at a minimum. Open one tonight and decant it (keeping an eye out for sediment) about 30 minutes before serving at 60 degrees in your best Bordeaux stems. This is special-occasion wine for sure, deserving of your best effort in the kitchen: The decadence of the attached recipe is highly appropriate. Cheers!
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Country
France
Region
Other
Sub-Region
FranceSaint-Émilion
Soil
Limestone & Clay
Farming
Sustainable
Blend
Cabernet Franc 50%, Merlot 50%
Alcohol
14.0
OAK
100% New French
TEMP.
60
Glassware
Bordeaux Stems
Drinking
Now-2025
Decanting
30 Minutes
Pairing
Tournedos Rossini

France

Bourgogne

Beaujolais

Enjoying the greatest wines of Beaujolais starts, as it usually does, with the lay of the land. In Beaujolais, 10 localities have been given their own AOC (Appellation of Controlled Origin) designation. They are: Saint Amour; Juliénas; Chénas; Moulin-à Vent; Fleurie; Chiroubles; Morgon; Régnié; Côte de Brouilly; and Brouilly.

Southwestern France

Bordeaux

Bordeaux surrounds two rivers, the Dordogne and Garonne, which intersect north of the city of Bordeaux to form the Gironde Estuary, which empties into the Atlantic Ocean. The region is at the 45th parallel (California’s Napa Valley is at the38th), with a mild, Atlantic-influenced climate enabling the maturation of late-ripening varieties.

Central France

Loire Valley

The Loire is France’s longest river (634 miles), originating in the southerly Cévennes Mountains, flowing north towards Paris, then curving westward and emptying into the Atlantic Ocean near Nantes. The Loire and its tributaries cover a huge swath of central France, with most of the wine appellations on an east-west stretch at47 degrees north (the same latitude as Burgundy).

Northeastern France

Alsace

Alsace, in Northeastern France, is one of the most geologically diverse wine regions in the world, with vineyards running from the foothills of theVosges Mountains down to the Rhine River Valley below.

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