Farr Vintners Logo

Ausone 2005

RegionBordeaux
Subregion France > Bordeaux > Right Bank > St Emilion
ColourRed
TypeStill
Grape VarietyMerlot/Cabernet Franc

View all vintages of this wine | View all wines by Ausone

Label

Tasting Notes

The 2005 Ausone is a perfect wine of the vintage. It displays crushed rock, spring flowers, blueberry and blackberry fruit, a full-bodied mouthfeel, stunning purity and richness, and perfect harmony among all of its component parts (acidity, tannin, wood, alcohol and extract). Still youthful, but oh, so promising, this wine should be set aside for another decade and drunk over the following 50-75 years. Drink 2025-2100.

100
Robert Parker, Wine Advocate (219), June 2015

I love the tobacco, berry, cigar box, toasty oak, ripe fruit and fresh mushroom flavors in this full-bodied red, which has ultralayered tannins and vanilla, new oak and berry character. Powerful and superconcentrated, with great length. This is a muscular, full-throttle wine, racing very, very fast. Best after 2019. 1,330 cases made.

100
James Suckling, WineSpectator.com, February 2008

The 2005 Ausone is a blend of 55% Cabernet Franc and 45% Merlot. Deep garnet-brick in color, it needs a lot of swirling to coax out the most evocative perfume of Morello cherries, raspberry preserves, redcurrant jelly, and red roses with hints of aniseed, forest floor, truffles, and iron ore. Medium to full-bodied, it has a very firm, grainy texture and an incredibly lively backbone. So, so beautifully perfumed, it finishes incredibly long and mineral-laced. This undoubtedly already offers a WOW experience, but I would give it another 5-7 years in bottle to truly let that perfume emerge, then drink it over the following 40-50-years+. Located on the limestone plateau over the town of Saint Emilion, it covers only 17 acres and has been owned exclusively by the Vauthiers (Alain) since the mid-1990s. It is usually composed of 50-60% Cabernet Franc with Merlot making up the rest of the blend.

100
Lisa Perrotti-Brown MW, The Wine Independent, July 2022

The Château Ausone 2005 has a very backward bouquet at first, but it soon loses any inhibitions it might have had, offering blackberry, clove, a touch of balsamic, quite high-toned with just a hint of VA giving it lift. The palate is medium-bodied and sports a slightly lactic entry: hints of dark chocolate infusing the lavish red and black fruit with a long sweet finish. Alain Vauthier crafted a delicious, sensual Ausone although it's just lost a little of the breeding I felt it had during its early years and perhaps that is highlighted by juxtaposing it against the Cheval Blanc. Drink 2018 - 2045

95
Neal Martin, RobertParker.com, February 2015

Tasted blind. Classic, ripe claret nose. Very ripe. More austere than some, but lovely freshness. Everything in its place. Long and prancing on the palate.
Drink 2018-2040

18.5
Jancis Robinson MW, JancisRobinson.com, March 2017

Deep ruby-red. Penetrating aromas of cassis and minerals. The nose does not prepare one for this huge, improbably sweet, palate-saturating wine, whose pungent minerality and epic intensity makes it solid as a rock. The three-dimensional texture here is uncanny, and the wine's explosive finishing flavors of dark berries, bitter chocolate and minerals persist for minutes. This must be one of the three or four greatest young Bordeaux I've ever tasted. The numbers here: 14.28% alcohol, 3.55 pH and an IPT between 80 and 85. This will go on for several decades, and I would not be at all surprised if it shut down in bottle for a very long time.

98+
Stephen Tanzer, International Wine Cellar

Came twelth out of 184 wines

18+
-, Southwold Bordeaux Tasting, January 2009

Absolutely brilliant and outstanding, perhaps the most accomplished wine of the vintage. Admirable complex nose, great body, incredible perfection of texture and flavour, inimitable breed, and lovely after-taste. The quality and the tactile elegance of the tannin is in a class of its own. Most other 2005s aseem almost rustic in comparison. Drink from 2017.

20
Michel Bettane, Decanter.com, April 2006
Read more tasting notes...

A tiny production of just over 1,300 cases will make the 2005 Ausone impossible to find, but proprietor Alain Vauthier continues to exhibit the Midas touch with his perfectionist efforts at this estate. This brilliant, blue/black-hued offering reveals an extraordinarily youthful, but promising nose of incense, blueberries, blackberries, currants, licorice, and crushed rocks. This intense 2005 boasts powerful, super-layered, multidimensional flavors with tremendous extraction, yet they come across as incredibly sublime, even delicate for such a stunningly concentrated, full-bodied effort. A masterpiece of concentration and balance, it will no doubt be drinking well a century from now. Anticipated maturity: 2030-2080+.

100
Robert Parker, Wine Advocate (176), April 2008

La Chapelle d’Ausone only hints at what purchasers will find in the 2005 Ausone, a 50- to 100-year wine whose production consists of a mere 15,000 bottles. Black as a moonless night with a soaring nose of spring flowers, creme de cassis, melted licorice, truffles, and blueberries, it is incredibly intense with extremely high extract, tannin, and alcohol, yet is unbelievably delicate and light on its feet for such a massive wine. This is a brilliant winemaking achievement from an extraordinarily hallowed terroir on the southern hillside slopes of St.-Emilion. The 2005 will not be ready to drink for 15-20 years, but in a hundred years, wine lovers will still be singing its praises. An amazing accomplishment! Alain Vauthier has accomplished such extraordinary things at Ausone over the last few vintages, it is difficult to imagine the 2005s might be the pinnacle of his achievement. However, Vauthier never rests on the status quo ... so who knows?

98/100
Robert Parker, Wine Advocate (170), April 2007

I’m not going out on a limb saying the 2005 Ausone is better than the 2003, 2000, etc., but it is certainly at the same level. It is a wine of great intensity with extraordinary extract as well as a seamless integration of huge levels of tannin and alcohol. Amazingly deep and multilayered, but so ethereal it must be tasted to be believed, it is a rich, full-throttle offering that should outlive us all. It should not be consumed before 2020, but I suspect 95% of it will be long gone by then. Kudos to Alain Vauthier for pushing the envelope as far as anyone in Bordeaux is doing today. Anticipated maturity: 2020-2100!

96/100
Robert Parker, Wine Advocate (164), April 2006
100
James Suckling, WineSpectator.com, February 2008

Loads of blackberry, spice and toasted oak character. Full-bodied, with layers of velvety tannins and amazing fruit. Long and seductive. Layered. This could be even better than the 2003 and 2000. Fantastic.

95/100
James Suckling, WineSpectator.com, March 2006

Dark crimson - still with a bit of blue in it. Rather indistinct smudgy nose and edgy acidity and tannin. Medium weight and very definitely teenage and a bit surly at the moment. There's a strong suggestion of oak here and even a hint of dried fruit. Then lift on the finish and the promise of something ethereal eventually. But it will be a long wait. 14%. Drink 2023-2045
(17++ points)

17+
Jancis Robinson MW, JancisRobinson.com, February 2015

Exceptionally deep, blackish, leathery nose - brilliant intensity. Smooth ripe mulberries and tar as well. All very well melded. Very rich and round and concentrated. Extremely intense. Lovely satin texture - very stereotype 'masculine' and almost brutal on the palate. Extraordinary intensity but this will have to be kept a LONG time. Beef extract yet freshness. Great density and yet finesse too. Very dry. Definitely meaty. Drink 2016-30

18.5
Jancis Robinson MW, JancisRobinson.com, April 2006
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.