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Chapelle d´Ausone
Region Bordeaux
Appellation Saint-Emilion
Category Red Wine
Classification 2nd Wine of First Great Growth "A" (St. Émilion 2012)
See all vintages of this wine
C(s)=Case(s), Bt(s)=Bottle(s), Cat=Wine Category
Cat Appellation Year Producer, Wine Size C(s) HKD/Cs Score Critic
Saint-Emilion 2018 Chateau Ausone , Chapelle d´Ausone BT 4 HK$1,800.00 94-95 JS
Saint-Emilion 2018 Chateau Ausone , Chapelle d´Ausone BT6 1 HK$10,260.00 94-95 JS
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Tasting Notes

This is a very tight and structured second wine with blueberry, spice and light hazelnut character. It’s full of volume, but shows underlying firmness and brightness. Lovely length.

Score: 94-95 James Suckling (JS), JamesSuckling.com, April 2019

The 2018 Chapelle d´Ausone is a drop-dead gorgeous second wine. Wonderfully finessed in every way, the 2018 conveys intensity allied to a sense of weightless elegance. Freshly cut flowers, spice and blood orange add freshness, but more than anything else, the Chapelle is a Saint-Émilion that speaks to regal elegance. It is also one of the best wines in its peer group.

Score: 91-94 Antonio Galloni (AG), Vinous Media (VM), April 2019

The 2018 Chapelle d´Ausone is made of 50% Merlot, 40% Cabernet Franc and 10% Cabernet Sauvignon. The Merlot was harvested on September 25 and 27, the Cabernet Franc on October 3, 8 and 9, and the Cabernet Sauvignon was harvested on October 9. Deep purple-black in color, it is a little reticent to begin, unfurling slowly to reveal notes of Black Forest cake, mincemeat pie, candied violets and Chinese five spice plus waves of charcuterie, black olives, mossy bark and cast iron pan. Full-bodied with a fantastic line of freshness lifting the dense layers, it has a very plush, silt-like texture and a very long, mineral-laced finish.

I didn’t have much of a chance to speak with Alain and Pauline Vauthier during my visit for Primeurs. It was a crazy busy day at Ausone when I came—the place completely crammed with anxious visitors from all over the world waiting to taste. That was fine though, because I was at Ausone back in October when Pauline was managing the 2018 fermentations and had a chance to head into the winery with her then to see her method of “gentle infusion” in action; it involves a very clever means of using a forklift to gravity feed the juice onto the skin cap and allowing it to slowly trickle down through the skins. Tasting the 2018s during Primeurs, I was overcome with the very satisfying sense that she absolutely nailed it back then. Château Ausone—one of the most envied vineyards in all of Bordeaux—truly excelled itself in 2018. Perched on Saint-Émilion’s famous limestone plateau and calcareous clay slope, it clearly showed its pedigree under 2018’s challenging conditions. The Vauthiers have produced a wine from this place and time that is at once intense, superbly nuanced and bursting with energy but has a rock-solid structure of perfectly ripe tannins. And it has tons of freshness that comes firstly from maintaining the vineyard’s signature low pH. (The pH was 3.65 this year, a little high for Ausone, but still incredible considering how many wines are over 3.8.) Secondly, that freshness comes from sparks of bright, crunchy fruit intermingled with rich, seductive layers. The alcohol, at 14.5%, grounds all the otherwise ethereal components with well-poised gravitas. Astonishingly great wine—brava!

Score: 93-95 Lisa Perrotti-Brown (LPB), The Wine Advocate (WA), April 2019

Please note that these tasting notes/scores are not intended to be exhaustive and in some cases they may not be the most recently published figures. However, we always do our best to add latest scores and reviews when these come to our attention. We advise customers who wish to purchase wines based simply on critical reviews to carry out further research into the latest reports.