2021 Ch Ausone Grand Cru, Saint-Emilion

Medium-deep crimson. Complex dark plum, dark chocolate, espresso aromas with herb garden notes. Richly flavoured dark plum, praline roasted chestnut toasty flavours, fine plentiful chalky tannins. Firm and minerally at the finish. Very good mid-palate density and richness. Lovely wine with superb balance and potential longevity. 65% cabernet franc, 35% merlot. Vinification in oak vats, followed by 20 months maturation in French oak.

97-98 points Andrew Caillard MW

Vibrant red berry notes on the nose, fragranced damson, blueberry, plum, some wild flower and dried flower touches. Smooth and so silky on the palate, round and gently mouth filling with graphite edges that appear almost straight away. You get that nuance of wet stone and chalk but so well balanced with charming, juicy cherry and blackcurrant fruit on the palate. So perfectly smooth and balanced, silky tannins give the powdery finish while the well-balanced acidity gives the energy underneath. It’s incredibly captivating because you get these waves of flavour and a gentle lick of stone that reminds you you're in St-Emilion on pure limestone. Such verticality and an aerial quality to this with flavours that continue to lift the entire way through. Sustained but graceful with a shy sense of power. Brilliant winemaking for the vintage.

Drinking Window 2028 - 2050

95 points Georgina Hindle decanter.com

The 2021 Ausone could turn out to be one of the wines of the vintage on the right bank. It shows terrific balance with just enough mid-palate sweetness and texture to fill out the layers. To be sure the 2021 is an understated Ausone but all the elements are so nicely balanced. Red purplish Berry fruit pomegranate spice and mocha are pushed forward. The blend is 60% Cabernet Franc and 40% Merlot with the Merlot more in evidence today while the Franc is felt mostly on the wines finish. Rose petal cinnamon and blood orange add an exotic flourish.

93-95 points AG vinous.com

Full-bodied, but so elegant and fresh, with a silky, elegant tannin texture. Very deep and expansive. Lots going on already with plenty of perfume. Blueberries, cloves, lavender and some wild-berry notes. Dark cocoa, too. Some espresso character at the end. Wonderful interplay of spices and fruit. Long. It keeps going.

96-97 points jamessuckling.com

A blend of 65% Cabernet Franc and 35% Merlot, the 2021 Ausone is a strong candidate for the title of wine of the vintage. Wafting from the glass with aromas of wild blueberries and raspberries mingled with rose petals, violets, exotic spices, vine smoke and blood orange, it's full-bodied, seamless and sensual, with a satiny attack that segues into a deep, layered mid-palate of breathtaking precision and intensity without weight. Built around bright acids and ultra-refined tannins and concluding with a resonant, perfumed finish, this profound young Ausone represents the essence of this great limestone terroir. I am not in the habit of drinking six-month-old Bordeaux cask samples, but this is one wine that would have sorely tempted me to make an exception to that rule if my appointment at the estate hadn't been one of the first of the day!

One of Bordeaux's greatest terroirs, perched on the edge of Saint-Émilion's limestone escarpment, Ausone comprises vineyards on the slopes (of which one, "Le Poirier," situated directly below the château, supplies the core of the assemblage) and on the walled terraces that cling to the top of the plateau. It's a sheltered mesoclimate, planted predominantly with Cabernet Franc, with at most 1.2 meters of clay above the rock. The vineyards are old, and when missing vines have been replaced, the replacements are tagged and harvested separately. In the winery, the fruit ferments in wooden vats with twice-daily délestages (rack-and-return) until alcoholic fermentation begins to subside, at which point the cap is simply moistened until the moment of décuvage and pressing. Maturation follows, in a cool former quarry hewn from the limestone, in entirely new barrels (mainly from Taransaud and Demptos) and lasts for some 20 months. The result is one of the region's most characterful and long-lived wines, endowed with striking intensity, precision and persistence.

97-100 points William Kelley robertparker.com