2018 Chateau Ausone St Emilion

An exceptional year in St Emilion, and as you would expect Ausone is effortlessly showcasing what can be done. Beautifully sweet but fresh and fleshy brambled fruit, dense and perfectly placed, showing precision and carefully-carved tannins but also joy, laced with sandalwood, cedar, graphite and smoke, all controlled and deftly delivered. 85% new oak, harvest September 25 to October 9, 38hl/ha yield.

Tasted blind. 18.4 average score! Big and round and rather galumphing! Tea-leaf flavours. Chewy tannins on the end. Very, very youthful. Great undertow. (JR)

The limestone soils of Ausone set the pace in St Emilion, and they have effortlessly dealt with the drought of the 2018 summer. What you get in the glass here is a push and pull of tannins and acidity, keeping the blackberry, cassis and redcurrant fruit walking the line between them. Eats its 100% new oak, which is apparent only through the creamy texture that becomes apparant through the mid palate as it opens. Displaying both tension and persistency, and the juicy scrape of limestone through the finish. his is deep and ripped, coming out you like a powerhouse, then it stops, tiptoes away, then rises up to slowly stretch out through the palate, displaying incredible tension and length. 3.6pH, 38hl/ha yield.