2005 Ausone

Alain Vauthier was quite candid about the approach he has taken to raising his wine to an even higher level in recent years. "Since '95 I have essentially cut production of Ausone in half and quadrupled the price." There will be barely 16,000 bottles of the 2007. In contrast to many of his colleagues, Vauthier told me that he was optimistic about the 2007 harvest up until mid-August, largely due to the fact that his team had spent 50% more time in the vines than normal during the summer. "But then we received 60 millimeters of rain here between August 19 and 26." The crop was saved by a splendid September and very good early weather in early October. Still, said Vauthier, the index of total polyphenols and the grape sugars are lower in 2007 than they were in 2006 or 2005. Incidentally, the 2005 Ausone was the single greatest bottle I sampled in Bordeaux this spring, though I doubt I'll be around when this monumental wine reaches its apogee.

The hugely endowed 2005 Ausone is likely to be nearly immortal, but it may also require 15 to 20 years of cellaring before it becomes approachable. (So if you buy this-and it's going to be pricey!-be prepared to bequeath it to your descendants.) Alain Vauthier brought in a bit of slightly shriveled merlot on September 17, then harvested the bulk of his merlot between September 22 and 26; the cabernet franc was picked on October 1 and October 6. The wine is outsized in all of its parts, with higher IPT and alcohol than either 2003 or 2000 (in 2005, the cabernet franc came in with 14.5% potential alcohol, noted Vauthier, who said that the blend is 14.3% now but will finish at around 14%). As Vauthier has added no fertilizers for a long time, the pH of Ausone is always on the low side: 3.62 in 2005. Interestingly, the merlot had a lower pH than the cabernet franc in 2005-a testament to the great ripeness of the later-picked franc. There has been no better wine made in Bordeaux over the past seven or eight years than Ausone.