Chapelle d'Ausone 2020

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.

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. It 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.

Flowers, leafy herbs, mint, espresso, cherries, plums, and a hint of blueberries come alive in the aromatic profile. But the best is yet to come, with its array of minerals, rocks, stones, and salt-tinged red and black fruits that cross your palate with length, lift, precision, purity, and soft, smooth textures. It is difficult to believe that this is their second wine. Drink from 2025–2040.

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. Its saturated purple hue is followed by a rockstar nose of ripe dark 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.

Unusual blend in Chapelle d'Ausone this year because it is dominant Cabernet Franc, making it one to look out for in future verticals. Starts off with real austerity, opening to waves of floral peony and violet, before it softens and widens into creamy vanilla-spiced raspberry and blackberry fruits. Such a beautiful wine, one to get hold of. Exceptional grip, nuanced with pared-back salinity. 100% new oak, Pauline Vauthier winemaker with cellar master Philippe Baillarguet. First year of official conversion to organic farming.

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.

La Chapelle d'Ausone unfolds a magnificent array of admirable spicy notes, with ripe, sun-kissed fruit emerging. A wine with formidable concentration in dry extracts, underlined by élevage that is still very present. The tannic mass is there and will quietly meld into a very dense texture. So dense that it will carry this wine serenely over the coming decades.

La Chapelle d’Ausone does not reveal itself spontaneously. One must know how to wait, until the bouquet deigns to communicate a little! What it shows is clearly linked to Cabernet Franc, which makes up 60% of the blend. It reveals peony notes as well as noble herbal nuances that ensure freshness. On the palate, the wine settles in with a certain discretion before emphasizing its structure and dimension. It combines elegance and breadth with an evident ability to bridge power and finesse. The notion of a great wine is asserted and embraced.

The second wine of Château Ausone is beautiful, with great tannins and fine dark fruits. Produced from a selection of wines, it has a succulent character and perfume from the Cabernet Franc in the blend. It will age with great panache. Drink from 2028.