December 12, 2023 - Salon Ficofi Paris walkabout tasting and dinner, no detailed tasting notes. From DMG, generous, lush, good structure, much better than the 2011 alongside it. 96+
November 28, 2023 - Drunk alongside 2006 and 2014
Like the 2006 but even more complex and slightly more concentrated. Not heavy. Better than 06 or 14
Mineral, red fruits. A brilliant vintage
October 17, 2023 - Definitely a powerful, full-bodied and well-rounded right-bank Bordeaux wine. Intense aroma of fresh grass, pine and dark berries. Tannins and acohold levels are high, yet silky smooth to drink. Ausone never fails; and it has consistently out performed its peers from the rignt-bank, say Angelus, Cheval Blanc and Pavie.
May 28, 2023 - Moved nicely in the right direction since last bottle.
This bottle started very pretty and then became so gorgeously addictive as it opened up. A background of velvety soft tannins, coats your entire mouth , in a delightfully enjoyable way. I’m trying to wait for at least 3 years for the next bottle.
August 16, 2022 - Drank my first bottle of an ex-château half case.
Brief note: I love right bank Merlot /Cab Franc blends and in this case 55 CF /45 Merlot . Needs 2-3 more years to resolve the tannins. Beautiful silky mouth feel, cab franc nose, good structure, a star in the making! 99+ potiental within the next two decades. Currently 97 IMO. Going to put the other bottles in a cold dark cellar and try to forget them for a half a decade or so!
January 27, 2022 - Ausone was tasted next to Mouton R 09 and Margaux 09.
Had nice dinner with a friend of mine who is a recognized wine taster.
His clear favorite was Ausone. I guess he would have rated it 100 points, but we did not talk about ratings, but it was his WOTN and we also had La Tache 2012 or 2013.
This wine was sublime and is wine in the making.
Personally Margaux was my favorite - but all were great.
September 8, 2021 - 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: Rather muted nose which needed a bit of swirling to reveal some ripe, dark fruit. Not open and inviting. Same is true for the palate with dark berries, minerality and herbs. A wall of tannins will need a lot more years to soften and open up, gain creaminess and become lighter. A bottle two years ago showed much better (95 pts), so I guess this has shut down recently. Like the 2005 and 2015, this has a lot of substance and is quite promising but in this tasting it didn’t really show all it has in store. A bit more air might have helped here as witnessed by a bottle of the 2016 we had recently which needed a few hours of air to open up and showed brilliantly (rated 97 pts).
Decanting: Not decanted, not sure how much more air would have helped here. I would give it at least 3-4 hours in the decanter. Better just wait.
August 30, 2021 - 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:
Dark coffee and, on balance, darker berry fruit, some dried herbs and maybe barnyard. Came across slightly restrained at this stage. In terms of complexity more narraw and balance not quite perfect with lingering, slightly dry tannins.
November 9, 2019 - Still nowhere near my drinking window - great tannins, shows well, nose a bit opening
June 23, 2019 - 2009 Bordeaux 10 years in the bottle 2-day horizontal; 6/23/2019-6/24/2019 (Fribourg): Part of a grand Bordeaux 2009 tasting spanning 2 days that revealed 1) a right bank struggling with overripe fruit and overwhelming tannins, 2) wide spreak between top performers and laggards, 3) left bank, and especially Margaux, outshone the right bank cousins, 4) Top wines: Palmer, Margaux, Cheval Blanc, Vieux Chateau Certan.
Tasting note:
Very ripe fruit, some herbs and a bit of medicinal notes. Juicy and fruity palate. Layered texture.