An utterly perfect wine from Alain Vauthier, the 2015 Château Ausone offers off the hook notes of crème de cassis, black raspberries, toasted spice and dried flowers, with more floral and mineral characteristics developing with time in the glass. Amazingly deep, full-bodied, pure and ethereally textured, with building density and tannin, it’s one of those wines that need to be tasted to be believed. Unfortunately, the production is minuscule (and expensive). A wine that will make your heart rate jump, give it 4-5 years of cellaring and I suspect it will keep for as long as you’d like to hang on to bottles. It’s a tour de force in wine and the wine of the vintage in 2015.

Is there a more consistent wine in Saint Emilion? Perhaps, but it is hard for me to think of any wine that produces wine at this high level of quality, vintage after vintage. 2015 continues that streak. This is what intensity is all about, on the nose and palate. Picture a bucket of insanely ripe black cherries, black plums and licorice squeezed over rocks and stones before it's placed into your glass, and well you get the idea. The purity of fruit, incredible level of concentration, silky tannins and a finish that stays on target for at least 60 seconds or longer is what you'll find here. The only issue is, you need to buy this for your kids, as it's going to take 20years or more to start showing its stuff. But, if you have the money and the time... Read more at:https://www.thewinecellarinsider.com/search-wine-tasting-notes/?szSearch=2015+Ausone

Ausone 2015 is a blend of 50% Merlot and 50% Cabernet Franc and has a medium to deep garnet color. It needs considerably swirling and air to begin to reveal notes of iron ore, Chinese five spice, underbrush, and black truffles, before it opens out to a core of fruitcake, dried roses, licorice, and blueberry preserves, plus a hint of kirsch. Full-bodied, rich and powerful in the mouth, the palate delivers a solid core of muscular fruit with firm yet velvety tannins and seamless freshness, finishing with incredible length and jaw dropping layers. Incredible!

This magnificent wine brings together the great fruit of the vintage with a complex structure. The acidity, ripe tannins and the power of this dense wine are enormous, as is its aging potential. With that acidity and tannic structure, and with the perfumes from the Cabernet Franc, this wine will evolve slowly and with a measured pace. Drink from 2028.

Vibrant medium intensity cherry red, the limestone fingerprint clear even visually in that it is more jewel-like than most in the vintage. A masterclass in what slate scrape and pumice stone means when talking about texture in a wine, set against a caress of black cherry, raspberry, white tea, pomegranate, gunsmoke, leather, exceptional with a juicy finish, truly outstanding - and this is a higher score than I gave it back in 2022 in a vertical at the estate. 85% new oak for ageing.

Composed of 50% Cabernet Franc and 50% Merlot aged in French oak barrels, 85% new, for 20 months, the 2015 Ausone features a deep garnet-purple color and comes bounding out of the glass with expressive plum preserves, wild blueberries and cherry pie aromas plus fragrant nuances of roses, licorice, Indian spices, baker’s chocolate, new leather and cedar chest plus a touch of underbrush. Big, rich, opulent and full-bodied in the mouth, it is laden with bold blue and black fruits, superbly supported by very firm, very finely grained tannins and wonderfully seamless freshness, finishing with long-lingering exotic spice hints. - Lisa Perrotti-Brown

What a ravishing nose of the ripest black fruit, with so many spicy and some floral nuances. Compact and very well-structured palate that’s only just beginning to show what’s packed in there. For this vintage, it’s rather cool and dry, even at the finish (where a lot of 2015s show a hint of warmth from alcohol). Clearly a wine with a great future, but needs some time to give its abundant best. Drink or hold. Château Quintus vertical tasting. SP.

50% each Merlot and Cabernet Franc. Suave texture but so much power behind. Fine, fragrant nose of pure berry fruit then real density and depth on the palate. Layered fruit and tannins but finely etched. Clean, long and persistent.

The 2015 Ausone was tasted directly against the Cheval Blanc, which is always an intriguing pairing. This is extremely pure, opulent and superbly delineated, with Morello cherry, pencil lead, camphor and licorice aromas. The palate is medium-bodied, fleshy, generous and lightly spiced, with saturated tannins and cough candy-infused red fruit. It tightens up a little toward the finish but lingers long in the mouth. Excellent. Tasted at the 2015 Ten-Year-On tasting at Bordeaux Index. -- Neal Martin