Château Ausone

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Château Ausone is a French winery and is located in the Saint-Émilion area on a plateau overlooking the Dordogne valley .

Alongside Château Cheval Blanc , Château Angélus and Château Pavie , it is the only winery from the Saint Émilion appellation with the highest Premier Grand Cru Classé A classification (see also the article Bordeaux wine (classification) ). In addition to the quality of its wines, Château Ausone is also known for the dome-like wine cellar carved into the rock.

According to Robert Parker  , the Château Ausone is "in a strategically wonderful location on one of the limestone slopes below the village of St. Emilion". The Ausone vineyards are surrounded by a belt of rock faces that open to the south. As a result, the vineyards have optimal solar radiation and are protected from the cold north winds.

Nearby are the remains of a large Roman villa. Possibly this was the seat of the Roman poet Ausonius (310–395), who was born in Bordeaux and who has demonstrably owned vineyards here. Recently, Château Canon-La Gaffelière has also been claiming its historically significant location.

Location, soil and grape varieties

The château is located in the south-east of the Saint-Émilion appellation , just a few hundred meters from the commune of Saint-Émilion. The 7.3 hectare vineyards are located exactly at the junction between the limestone plateau of Saint-Émilion and the gravel deposits of the Dordogne at the foot of the plateau. The hillside location between the plateau and the foot is ideally oriented to the south like an amphitheater.

The average age of the vines is 50 years. The current planting is 50% Merlot and 50% Cabernet Franc .

Wine

Due to the small area under cultivation, Ausone wines are only available in tiny quantities. Few wine connoisseurs therefore have contact with Ausone wines. These wines are often extraordinarily independent, which can be attributed to the high proportion of the spicy Cabernet Franc. But there are also outspoken enthusiasts, especially for the unusual Ausone wines. The wines are always traded at the very highest price level of Saint Émilion wines, are often significantly more expensive than the wine of the same ranking from the much larger Château Cheval Blanc and often exceed the price of a majority of the wines from the more expensive neighboring appellation Pomerol . It can therefore be seen as a stroke of luck and a rarity to have Ausone wine in your glass.

Since 1995, the advisory services of the oenologist Michel Rolland have been used , whose influence once again greatly improved the quality of the wines. The Vauthier / Rolland team reduced the yield in order to achieve an even higher concentration of the wine and introduced " malolactic fermentation " in small barrels instead of in large steel tanks.

In the opinion of the wine expert Parker, this brings out the extraordinary terroir of Ausone even better, the wines are "even richer and more seductive in aroma". But of course the chateau was already producing wines of the highest quality, especially in the top vintages - apart from a "period of weakness in the seventies" ( Horst Dippel ).

The peak years were, for example, 1874, 1900, 1921, 1929, 1982, 1983, 1990, 1995, 1996, most recently 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005; one can therefore say that the high level has become much more constant than before. However, an Ausone wine should only be drunk after a maturation period of approx. 10 years, since - according to the unanimous opinion of the wine experts - it is only then that it has fully developed its taste.

The second wine of the winery is called Chapelle d'Ausone .

History of the winery

Château Ausone was probably founded in its current form in the 14th century and has been owned by the Vauthier and Dubois-Challon families for 250 years. After a long dispute, the Vauthiers branch bought the shares from Madame Dubois-Challon in 1966 and is now the sole owner. The current owners are Catherine and Alain Vauthier.

literature

  • Charles Cocks, Edouard Féret, Bruno Boidron: Bordeaux et ses vins . 18th edition. Èdition Féret et Fils, Bordeaux 2007, ISBN 978-2-35156-013-6 .
  • Horst Dippel: The wine lexicon . 3. Edition. Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1999, ISBN 3-596-13826-4 .
  • Robert Parker : Parker's Wine Guide (=  Collection Rolf Heyne ). Heyne, Munich 2000, ISBN 3-453-16305-2 .