2012 Château Ausone

Community Tasting Notes (12) Avg Score: 94.6 points

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  11/18/2022 - steinersing wrote: 94 Points

  quite good for the vintage. Early drinking window.

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  11/9/2022 - JonnyG Likes this wine: 95 Points

  2012 Bordeaux After One Decade (Los Olivos, CA): My WOTN, quite primary but oh so alluring. A very expressive nose showing menthol, herbs and dark chocolate. The palate was creamy and complex, with blue and red fruit, licorice and just a touch of savory oak. Others found a muted green note somewhat of a distraction, but I loved it. Simultaneously ethereal and concentrated, and did I mention its incredibly long finish? Glad to have sampled one of my few bottles, but will try to hold off for a decade or more to see where this beauty goes.

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  3/8/2022 - Cailles wrote: 96 Points

  Bordeaux 2012 - 10 Years On - 33 Reds: All wines tasted blind. Not decanted. A few observations: 1) 2012 is a good quality vintage without the depth/length of great vintages. Still, one of the better “off-vintages”. 2) Many but not all wines are drinking well today. They are generally open, round and fleshed out. 3) Further cellaring is advised as there are hardly any tertiary aromas yet and that extra complexity will render the wines more interesting. The wines generally have the structure and fruit to age gracefully. 4) The level of ripeness/alcohol are not a concern (09, 10, 15, 18 have more problems in that area). 5) Left bank (avg. 92.2 pts) beats right bank (91.0) (group has right bank a notch ahead). The overall group avg. score is at a good 92.1, but unsurprisingly below past retrospectives of better vintages (00, 09, 10). 6) There are highlights on both sides: my best wines today were Ausone (96 pts), Mouton (96), Cheval (95) and Margaux (95).
  
  TN: Expressive on the nose full of fresh herbs, menthol, dark red and dark fruit, some faint coffee/toast aromas, just hints of chocolates. Superbly delinated and inviting. Same on the palate, this shows complex, with perfectly ripe but not too ripe dark red and lots of blue berries, herbs, minerality, some hints of perfectly integrated oak only. Sexy but so fine and elegant. Superbly fine tannins, no hard edges, perfectly integrated acidity, creamy yet weightless texture, very long lasting finish. This is a stunning wine and the best right bank in this tasting. Ausone just delivers in weaker vintages: I scored the 2006, 2007, 2008 (pure magic, best off vintage Bdx ever for me), 2014 and now the 2012 all 95 pts or higher. I didn’t come across any other Bordeaux which is able to achieve that consistency. What sets these Ausone apart (and makes them easily identifiable in a blind tasting is the absolute purity, freshness and weightlessness, with lots of blue berries complementing the red fruit - something I don’t find to that degree in other right bank wines. 96 pts.
  
  Decanting: This was good from the go. No extensive decanting needed.
  
  Group rank: 1st out of 33 reds
  Group average score: 96.1
  
  More information, vintage comparisons, top and worst 10 list, appellation rankings from the group in the story link

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  2/7/2022 - sirpat00 wrote: 97 Points

  Bordeaux 2012 10 years on tasting: A 2012 Bordeaux vintage horizontal hosted by a private collector. Main observations were: 1/ Left bank beats right bank thanks to Paulliac, St Estèphe and Margaux, 2/ (over-)extraction was a frequent issue, making this a vintage where winemaking decisions and skill mattered, 3/ as such, unsurprisingly, first growths and right bank equivalents clearly outperformed the pack, 4/ highlights were Ausone (97) followed by Cheval Blanc, Mouton, Pichon Lalande (all 96), 5/ the lowlight was an over-extracted Pape Clement (88). Complete ranking and additional observations included in the tasting story.
  
  Tasting note:
  A beautiful red berry fruit core, but also some blue berries in the mix. Dried herbs but also fresh, minty notes. hints of roasted coffee beans. Hardly any aging notes, maybe a bit of leather in the distance. Amazing precision and linearity. A mouthwateringly fruity palate with fresh acidity and well-integrated tannin. Maybe not quite as refined as Cheval Blanc 2012 on the palate but more detailed and elegant on the nose. The winner of this 2012 tasting.

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  11/10/2021 - Sean Tay wrote: 94 Points

  Medium purple in colour. Pronounced nose intensity with black fruits, black current, spices, cedar, toast, hawthorn. Medium+ acidity, tannin. Full bodied and long finish. The tannin is velvety and smooth. It’s still youthful and it will benefit more with more cellar time.

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