2021 Chapelle d'Ausone, St Emilion, Bordeaux

A unique blend of 75% Cabernet Franc and 25% Cabernet Sauvignon that hit roughly 300 cases, the 2021 Chapelle D'Ausone comes from a selection of all the parcels and was raised in 90% new barrels. It's the first time this cuvée has never included Merlot.) Cassis, redcurrants, spring flowers, iron, truffle, and sappy, tobacco-like notes all emerge from this refined, elegant, incredibly lengthy second wine. You could easily put this up with the top wines of the vintage with good concentration, a medium body, and a focused, seamless, yet still structured style.

75% Cabernet Franc and 25% Cabernet Sauvignon.

Some sage flower, orange blossom, violet and currant aromas follow through to a medium body, with soft and velvety tannins that show depth and texture. Pure, pretty and supple. Second wine of Ausone.

Better in a year or two.

Perfumed nose, full of pot pourri, scented flowers, dried raspberries and cherries. Really quite evocative, maybe in a vertical you'd pick this out from the nose but it smells wonderful and rich with cool blueberries. Round and charming, this is gorgeously soft, tannins are so inviting, caressing the mouth, not deep at all, this is delicate and primed to float across the tongue, registering the flavours but no heaviness. Almost ethereal in its performance. Really very delicious, full of flavour and character. Gorgeous styling and only got better after half an hour in the glass. Succulent, mineral, graphite, limestone touches on the finish remind you where you are.

Drink 2028 - 2050

75% Cabernet Franc, 25% Cabernet Sauvignon. Original and atypical blend with all that Cabernet and no Merlot. Cask sample.

Lifted and floral on the nose, long and linear on the palate, the tannins present but fine. Long, saline finish. Will be interesting to see how this evolves.

Drink 2027 - 2036

The 2021 Chapelle d'Ausone has a well-defined bouquet, the Cabernet Franc firmly in the driving seat here, with pencil box and undergrowth infusing the black fruit. The palate is medium-bodied with fine tannins, silky smooth in texture and neither deep nor concentrated, but retaining commendable tension on the finish. Enjoy it over the next decade.

Drink 2025 - 2036

The 2021 Chapelle d'Ausone wafts from the glass with notes of cherries, sweet berries and licorice framed by a creamy patina of new oak. Medium-bodied, pure and refined, with powdery tannins and a bright spine, it concludes with a mineral, vanillin-inflected finish. The blend contains no Merlot, as everything the vines produced went into the grand vin.

Drink 2026 - 2041

The 2021 Chapelle d’Ausone is a wine of total precision and class. Bright acids drive through a core of sweet red cherry, red plum, blood orange, chalk and mint. This is a seductive, super-expressive Saint-Émilion. There are no hard edges or angular contours here. Readers will find a wine of pure sophistication. It should drink beautifully for the next 10-15 years, maybe more.

Drink 2026 - 2036

Philippe Baillarguet cellar master, 100% new oak, harvest October 4 to 6.

Bright violet in colour, with ripe and sappy fruit. This is gorgeous, showing less intensity than recent vintages but a delicately-boned wine with hidden power that leans into the vintage, and is proof of how adaptive this terroir is - fresh in hot vintages, but generous in cool ones. Gooseberry, redcurrant, red cherry, raspberry, crushed rocks, and one of the rare 2nd wines that truly delivers in 2021.

Drink 2026 - 2038