2010 Château Ausone

Community Tasting Notes (9) Avg Score: 93.7 points

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  1/29/2024 - d.f.c Likes this wine: 95 Points

  Powerful, structured and balanced. Plenty nose of leaf, earth, mineral and chalk. Strong tannins and high alcohol level. Needed long decanting time.

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  10/14/2023 - denisontb Likes this wine: 93 Points

  Enjoyed with Yun and his friends over dinner. Fantastic !!

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  9/8/2021 - Cailles wrote: 92 Points

  20 Vintages of Ausone (1986 - 2015): All wines tasted single blind. Ausone is a rare bird and hence, the term „once in a lifetime“ certainly applies to this tasting. A few oberservations: 1) Huge quality improvement in recent years: Only after 2005 I can see Ausone up there with the best Bordeauxs thanks to less oak, more depth and precision and a hightened elegance. 2) The high Cabernet Franc share in the blend (ever increasing) makes these wines quite unique, lighter and with more airiness and a darker fruit expression than most right banks. 3) The wines need a lot of time: Ausone is rather a late bloomer and does not provide as much early drinking fun as many of its right bank peers - especially the great vintages (05, 09, 10, 15). 4) The best wines with the highest scores were almost all off-vintages (a first for me). The highest scores went to 08, 06, 07, 14. These wines are weightless and show how great the big vintages will be once mature. Only the 05 was up there with the off-vintages. 5) Wine of the night and my best off-vintage Bordeaux ever was the 2008 (rated 98 pts).
  
  TN: I have had this wine a year ago and it was quite disappointing, showing signs of oxidation and too much alcohol. This bottle again showed alcohol on the nose and at first there was little hope for a better experience. With some time and a lot of swirling, some stinky notes disappeared and underneath, a singular fresh blueberry fruit core took the centre stage. Overall, it didn‘t show that complex but nicely precise. The tannin structure is fine and velvety, there is not too much weight and a good acidity but again the balance is not perfect as there are some alcohol notes. In the best moments the palate was drinking on a 95+ pts level but overall not a great experience. I‘m not sure if this 2010 just needs a lot of decanting or a lot of time in the cellar or if it‘s just not a success. Anyway, I wouldn‘t be tempted to buy it.
  
  Decanting: Not decanted. I guess a long decant could have changed things.

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  8/30/2021 - sirpat00 wrote: 91 Points

  Ausone vertical (20 vintages) (Fribourg): Ausone vertical featuring 20 vintages from the 1986-2015 period. Hosted by a private collector an moderated by J-M Quarin. All wines were served single-blind with no prior decant. What struck me was the outstanding performance of some of the off-vintages, especially 2008, 2007 and 2006. That said I was super-excited about the 2015 which was pretty closed but showed enormous potential. The notoriously late-maturing profile was apparent with many of the 90ies vintages not yet ready. Full list of vintages and scores included in the tasting story.
  
  Tasting note:
  A somewhat darker fruit profile where some noticeable heat distracted. A nicely concentrated palate aromatically with plenty of fruit even if with a tannic overhang in the finish. I dismissed this as off-vintage and hardly bothered spending much time with it in the flight. Consistently scored this a year ago at a 2010 Bordeaux vertical.

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  6/29/2020 - Cailles wrote: 89 Points

  Bordeaux 2010 - 10 Years On - 61 Reds: Bordeaux 2010 after 10 years. 61 reds, mostly big names, tasted blind. Average score 92.1 and lower than the more open and charming 2009 vintage last year (93.4). A few observations: A) It’s not yet the harmonious, complex, classic, clean vintage. Especially the masculine appellations of the left bank need at least 5 more years to just open up, potentially longer to soften. B) Left bank trumps right bank thanks to less detectable alcohol, cleaner lines and the two best wines of the vintage (Mouton, Margaux). C) Pomerol shines bright with many strong wines which can all mask the high alcohol levels (best AOC slightly ahead of Pauillac). D) As in 2009, there are several right banks already past peak, incl. big names (Duffau Lagarosse, Ausone). All in all, 2010 is a very good vintage with pockets of greatness but today 2009 shows more open and hence complex. More information, top and worst 10 list, appellation rankings from five participants in the story link.
  
  TN: This was quite disappointing as it showed some signs of oxidation and couldn‘t mask the alcohol completly. Underneath there is a very fine, round, fresh wine with lots of fine red fruit, herbs and earthy tones. Good precision and good length but overall still disappointing. Also for the group certainly punching below its class.
  
  Decanting: I would go for a 3-4 hours decant at least.
  
  Group average: 91.8
  Group rank: number 40 out of 61 wines

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