| Region | |
|---|---|
| Subregion | France > Bordeaux > Right Bank > St Emilion |
| Colour | Red |
| Type | Still |
Ausone's second wine usually represents about one third of the château's total production and receives the same elevage as the Grand Vin itself. The average age of vines is 15 years. 45% Merlot, 45% Cabernet Franc, 10% Cabernet Sauvignon, with 85% new oak. Only a few hundred cases are produced annually which makes it very hard to find.
The purity of fruit here is really impressive with crushed currants and raspberries. Violets and lavender. Full-bodied, very intense and energetic. Tangy with bitter orange undertones. Grabs you. Chewy and fine tannins at the end. Second wine of Ausone. A blend of 60% cabernet franc, 35% merlot, and 5% cabernet sauvignon. Needs four to five years to come together and open.
The 2020 Chapelle d'Ausone contains more Cabernet Franc (60%) than the grand vin this year and 5% of Cabernet Sauvignon too. Revealing aromas of cherries, red berries, incense and cloves, it's medium to full-bodied, perfumed and precise, with a satiny attack and a saline finish. 2025 - 2045
The 2020 Chapelle d'Ausone has ample toasty oak on the nose, which continues to shade the black fruit underneath. Yet it coheres in the glass, finally allowing the terroir to shine through. The palate is medium-bodied with grainy tannins and a fine bead of acidity. It's very harmonious, with a precise and persistent finish. There's wonderful mineralité and tension here—superb. Tasted blind at the annual Southwold tasting. 2027 - 2048
The 2020 Chapelle d'Ausone is a blend of 60% Cabernet Franc, 35% Merlot, and 5% Cabernet Sauvignon. Deep garnet-purple in color, it is shut down to begin, soon giving way to profound notes of wild blueberries, black raspberries, and boysenberry preserves, plus suggestions of Indian spices, licorice, and lilacs. The medium-bodied palate is tightly knit with nuanced black and red fruits, supported by velvety tannins and beautifully judged freshness, finishing long and fragrant.
This has a beautifully nuanced yet deep flavour, showing the tight pared-back salinity and juice of limestone alongside fleshy blackberry fruits. There are firm but flexible tannins, it has grip and tension and frankly all the things that you want from a Chapelle, giving a generous hint of what you can expect from Ausone itself. First year of official conversion to organic farming. 3.66pH. 100% new oak.
Drinking Window 2026 - 2040
The second wine of Château Ausone, the 2020 Chapelle D'Ausone is based on 60% Cabernet Franc, 35% Merlot, and 5% Cabernet Sauvignon aged 20 months in barrel. It's saturated purple hue is followed by a rockstar nose of ripe darker cherries, blackcurrants, smoked tobacco, graphite, and toasted spices, with high class oak nicely integrated. Round, supple, and incredibly sexy, it has silky tannins and is unquestionably a brilliant wine with more than a touch of Ausone character. It's going to keep for two decades, offering tons of pleasure for the majority of its life.
60% Cabernet Franc, 35% Merlot, 5% Cabernet Sauvignon. Cask sample.
Definitely more Cabernet-orientated these days providing a structured, driven feel to the palate. Aromatically reserved but lithe fruit and firm but fine tannins. Great persistence on the finish. Should fill out in time. (JL)
Drink 2027 – 2038
(60% CF, 35% M, 5% CF; 33% harvest)
Fresh black-cherry and limestone-mineral, with a touch of new-wood vanilla, fine and subtle; rich, fullish, fresh, finely tannic; freshly sweet to taste, deep, racy, and refined, a most toothsome combination of juiciness, finesse, transparency, and freshness, with a delicate limestone minerality and gently aromatic length; the slightly dry presence of wood tannins appears on the finish, covered by the flesh up to that point, though this will doubtless be absorbed in due course. A very similar quality level to the La Clotte, with perhaps a touch more “raciness.” 2030–50+.
The 2020 Chapelle d'Ausone, raised entirely in new oak, is relatively backward on the nose, just like the 2018, and demands encouragement to eke out scents of blackberry, cedar, crushed limestone and a touch of pencil shaving. Very focused, though there is something bashful about the aromatics at the moment. The palate is medium-bodied and extremely pure, with pliant tannins and a silky smooth texture. Candied orange peel infuses the black fruit towards the mineral-driven finish. The more you remain in its presence, the more you feel the quality of this Deuxième Vin.
The 2020 Chapelle d’Ausone has a well defined, focused bouquet. Tightly-wound at first, the 2020 opens with lavender and incense aromas infusing the red berry fruit. Touches of rose petal emerge with aeration. The palate is medium-bodied with smooth tannins and moderate depth. A discrete white pepper note builds towards the finish that is vivacious and vibrant. I suspect that this might close down a little after bottling, but there is great potential. 2027 - 2045
The 2020 Chapelle d'Ausone contains more Cabernet Franc (60%) than the grand vin this year and 5% of Cabernet Sauvignon too. Revealing aromas of cherries, red berries, incense and cloves, it's medium to full-bodied, perfumed and precise, with a satiny attack and a saline finish.
