After lunch at Climens we were in a world of hurt time-wise to make our next appointment. Tris drove like a bat out of hell, rampaging across the Entre deux Mers, careening across country roads so we’d have the opportunity to taste and tour at what many consider the mecca for St. Emilion wines, Chateau Ausone. This really is like going to church folks, except the communal wine is substantially better and Pauline Vauthier is minding the “pulpit”. To wine geeks all over the world Pauline is one of Bordeaux’s true pin-up girls, very easy on the eyes, very bright and in charge of overseeing all the technical side of Ausone and its partner estates, including Moulin St. Georges, Fonbel and Chateau Simard, where the Vauthiers now oversee production and marketing. Pauline guided us through the entire 2008 line-up, where we got our first sense of what we had in store the rest of this trip.

Asking about the harvest, we were told that it was indeed a special one, contrary to the doom and gloom that we’d heard stateside. Though we did get it half right, it was a miserable August and September. But that, my friends, was not the end of the story. Starting the second week of September (what is traditionally considered the start of harvest), Bordeaux saw 6-8 weeks of beautiful weather, plenty of sun, cool temps, but warm enough to further ripening. Those who didn’t panic with the onset of rot earlier in the growing season and managed to cut away the damaged fruit were given an extraordinary amount of hang time, the top estates not harvesting until the second or third week of October (“no risk, no fun” to quote Stephan von Neipperg).

This was evident in the Vauthier wines. Starting with the Simard, through the Fonbel, to the silky, gorgeous Moulin St. Georges, there wasn’t an ounce of doom and gloom in this place, though there was some disappointment at the reduced production due to lower yields and the smaller-berried Cabernet Franc making up a larger part of the final blend. When we saddled up to the Chapelle d’Ausone, Ausone’s second wine, things had taken another turn again. This wasn’t just good, it was phenomenal. What leftovers! Easily as good as many an Ausone made prior to the rejuvenation of the chateau in 1998, lovely fruit, a tactile, near-crunchy chewiness, a truly great wine in its own right. Yet, sadly for the Chapelle, Pauline and Alain Vauthier’s Ausone took it yet another level! It is devestatingly great wine, on par with what the Chateau achieved in 1998 and certainly no more than the tiniest tick behind the 2000 and 2005. The Vauthiers say thank the Cab Franc for this one, of which this year it makes up more than half the blend, with more Cab Franc sticks going into the ground over the next few years. The Vauthiers love the results they get with perfectly farmed Franc, and so do we, this year’s Ausone is a swirling array of blueberry, black cherry, limestone, sweet tobacco and minerals, with ripe, plush tannins that make it almost drinkable now until the signature structure of the estate says, “excuse me” and takes over. Whew!

After some filming of the caves and a little shop-talking with Alain we retreated from Ausone with the same amount of reverence with which we had arrived. Calling it a long day, we proceeded to the mean streets of St. Emilion for a palate-cleansing Stella followed by a fun dinner that night with some good friends in the town of Bordeaux, where we ate at local haunt Bistro Le Sommelier, knocked back some tasty Magret de Canard, and drank some great wines off their reasonably priced list including 98 Sassicaia (95 euros!) and 99 Montrose (65 euros!). And to think we’re looking at another week of this? I hope we survive the experience… K.M.