2005 Château Ausone, St Emilion, Bordeaux

The 2005 Ausone is magnificent. A wine of soaring intensity and class, the 2005 dazzles from the very first taste. The aromatics alone are captivating, with notes of cinnamon, mint, crushed rocks, blood orange, mocha and incense. Graceful and stately in bearing, the 2005 boasts tremendous purity and breathtaking balance. Readers will find a stunning Saint-Émilion that is just at the beginning of what promises to be a very long drinking window that will be measured in decades. It is a towering achievement from the Vauthier family.

Drink 2022 - 2055

The 2005 Ausone is a blend of 55% Cabernet Franc and 45% Merlot. Deep garnet-brick in color, it needs a lot of swirling to coax out the most evocative perfume of Morello cherries, raspberry preserves, redcurrant jelly, and red roses with hints of aniseed, forest floor, truffles, and iron ore. Medium to full-bodied, it has a very firm, grainy texture and an incredibly lively backbone. So, so beautifully perfumed, it finishes incredibly long and mineral-laced. This undoubtedly already offers a WOW experience, but I would give it another 5-7 years in bottle to truly let that perfume emerge, then drink it over the following 40-50-years+.

Located on the limestone plateau over the town of Saint Emilion, it covers only 17 acres and has been owned exclusively by the Vauthiers Alain) since the mid-1990s. It is usually composed of 50-60% Cabernet Franc with Merlot making up the rest of the blend.

The 2005 Ausone is a perfect wine of the vintage. It displays crushed rock, spring flowers, blueberry and blackberry fruit, a full-bodied mouthfeel, stunning purity and richness, and perfect harmony among all of its component parts acidity, tannin, wood, alcohol and extract). Still youthful, but oh, so promising, this wine should be set aside for another decade and drunk over the following 50-75 years.

Drink 2025 - 2100

14.28% alcohol, 3.55 pH and an IPT between 80 and 85. This will go on for several decades, and I would not be at all surprised if it shut down in bottle for a very long time.

Deep ruby-red. Penetrating aromas of cassis and minerals. The nose does not prepare one for this huge, improbably sweet, palate-saturating wine, whose pungent minerality and epic intensity make it solid as a rock. The three-dimensional texture here is uncanny, and the wine's explosive finishing flavours of dark berries, bitter chocolate and minerals persist for minutes. This must be one of the three or four greatest young Bordeaux I've ever tasted.