2016 Château Ausone

Community Tasting Notes (7) Avg Score: 97.5 points

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  12/6/2022 - Collector1855 wrote: 96 Points

  Salon Focofi Paris walkabout and dinner, so no detailed tasting notes. Much more structured than the 2015 next to it. Very good potential though. Best after 2035.

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  9/4/2021 - Cailles wrote: 97 Points

  Bordeaux 2016 - 5 Years On - 8 Top Reds: All wines tasted single blind. This tasting proved again that 2016 is an amazing vintage. Compared to many other recent vintages, the 2016s show no excess in any category (especially beneficial for right banks these days) but wines that are still fully ripe. The aromatic complexity and precision are off the charts and structural frames are luxurious. Compared to the more solar 2015s wines we tasted last year, the 2016s will need more time to integrate and open up and might be a tad less charming at this point, but the potential is immense. Group winner was an incredible Ausone, ahead of the Pichon Lalande and an incredible and singular Montrose (which for me was a tied #1 with the Ausone).
  
  TN: Right after opening this was a deep brooding wine, very powerful and masculine, just hinting at all the potential. Double decanted and 4 hours later the wine had changed completely. Very inviting, fully expressive nose with ripe and very pure dark red and dark fruit, herbs and minerality. Incredible on the palate as it shows incredible concentration with layers upon layers of fruit, minerality, herbs, earthy notes, coffee - all delivered in UHD but at the same time the wine has no weight, super airy and light texture and feel, ultra soft tannins, superb freshness, very long and expanding finish. It strongly reminded me of the Le Pin 2000 we had a few weeks earlier. Wow.
  
  Decanting: A double decant a few hours before consumption was right. It needed it but not more.
  
  Group rank: #1 out of 8 wines
  Group score: 96.9 pts

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  8/12/2021 - sirpat00 wrote: 96 Points

  Bordeaux 2016 5-years on: Small horizontal of Bordeaux 2016 five years on. We tasted 8 wines in total from 4 appellations with 2 each in every flight. The setting was single-blind. All wines were at least double-decanted. Top performers were Ausone, Pichon Lalande and Figeac, making St Emilion the best performing appellation. Pomerol, on the other hand (VCC, Conseillante) didn't shine. St Estèphe was surprisingly ready. Pauillac felt early, but incredibly structured. We kicked off with a Selosse Substance and finished with Yquem 2013 and I also snuck in a Pichon Baron 1923. Ranking of all wines included in the tasting story.
  
  Tasting note:
  Detailed and elegant with slightly jammy raspberry fruit, distinctly minty, green spice, sweet vanilla notes. More dark on the palate with a more cherry type of fruit profile. Finely-grained tannin, light yet layered with a great juicy finish. I found this to be slightly on the back foot, not yet showing all it's got – hence worth keeping these guns in the holsters for another 3-5 years. But it was abundantly clear that this is a profound and poetic wine.

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  11/9/2019 - steinersing wrote: 99 Points

  This wine promises perfection once ready to drink. Fine tannins, faultless air to it. Slightly more ready to drink right now than a little older vintages which are more tannic / tight

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  9/21/2019 - Jeff Leve wrote: 100 Points

  Deep, dark garnet in color, you are instantly hit with a unique note of flowers and crushed rocks as you first nose the wine. On the palate, it tastes and feels liquefied essences of rocks and perfectly ripe, dark pit fruit and blackberries. The wine has symmetry. Everything is in balance between the fruit, tannins and acidity. The seamless finish, with its non-stop waves of fruit coats your palate in all the right ways. The wine remains with you for over 60 seconds! From a blend of 50% Cabernet Franc and 50% Merlot, this is one of the wines of the vintage. If you have cash, and the time to wait for maturity, this is a future legend in the making!

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