1995 Ausone

Since taking over full control here with the '95 vintage, the dynamic Alain Vauthier has thoroughly revitalized this wine, to the point where traditional fans of Ausone claim to be having trouble recognizing the recent results. But with the '95 now safely in bottle, and the '96 and '97 among the early standouts of their respective vintages, it is clear to this taster that Vauthier will be vindicated. He has cut yields, moved to later harvesting of riper fruit, introduced a five-to-six day cold maceration in the first cuve (using carbonic gas to prevent the fermentation from starting), and switched to malolactic fermentation in barriques In 1997, he did four passes through the vines to eliminate less-ripe fruit, and eventually harvested just 34 hectoliters per hectare of fruit that needed barely a half-degree of chaptalization. Incidentally, Vauthier will complete a new fermentation and barrel-aging facility in time for the 1998 harvest, having concluded that this estate extensive limestone caves are better suited for impressing tourists than for raising young wine. Though viewed for decades as a fabulous natural resource, these cold, humid caves are poorly ventilated and plagued with aromas of mushroom and mold. No doubt some of the charges of sloppy elevage leveled at Ausone through the years have been due to the insidious effects of this environment, though it may also be true that some Ausone "purists" enjoy these aromas and flavors.

You'll be hearing a lot more about the changes afoot at Ausone—both in terms of ownership and style of wine. Alain Vauthier expects that a long-running legal battle will finally be resolved within the next year, giving his family full control of this fabled property, which is currently half owned by the Dubois-Challons. Vauthier has already made radical changes in harvesting strategy and vinification; the result, beginning with the '95, will be an Ausone that will attract many new fans at the risk of alienating some of its hard-core partisans. The grapes are now picked later, for added ripeness, and extraction has been increased. Vauthier has moved to malo in harriques with a vengeance: two-thirds of the '95 crop went through its secondary fermentation in new barrels. The result is an atypically fleshy, ripe, very deep wine that purists may think of as Ausone on steroids. Only time will tell if the wine's minerally limestone terroir expresses itself fully. Pascal Delbeck, who now has little to do with the vinification of this wine, expresses decidedly mixed feelings about Ausone's new direction. Many people taste early today, he told me, and they like pleasing wines. More and more estates are picking later simply in response to these early tasters—and to a couple of influential wine writers. Today's pH for Ausone is around 3.8, Delbeck adds, while it was more like 3.55 15 years ago. Maybe what we need to do, concludes Delbeck half-seriously, is to make two wines each year: a "show reserve" and a classic ager. For my own part, I found the '95 Ausone something of a shock on first tasting it, but it steadily grew in my memory over the ensuing days.