Chateau Ausone produces some of the worlds very best wine and is located over 7 hectares of luxury soil on Saint Emilions limestone plateau which is just a few meters away from the medieval village. The soil here is perfect for growing vines consisting of clay and limestone.Grape varieties grown here include Merlot and Cabernet Franc with the most part being Cabernet Franc at 55%.

It takes a great amount of time for the vinification and ageing of the most superb of grapes that are harvested and which go into the very best of wine. A great deal of emphasis is put on the sorting of the grapes from the vines with the bunches being brought to the cellar in very small crates so as to assure there is no damage to them which of course would render them useless when it came to their use in one of the worlds very best luxury wine.

The vinification process is carried out in large special vats which are temperature controlled. This period of vatting is between four to five weeks. This depends totally on the vintage of the luxury wine. The malo-lactic fermentation process is completed in new oak barrels and following this process the wine is then left to age for a total of around 20 months in the limestone rock caves at Ausone. Ausone and wine have been linked with the Saint Emilion Estate for more than four centuries and it is thought that the original property belonged to poet Ausonius Lucaniac in the fourth century. At the foot to the wine estate is a location called La Gaffeliere where archeological remains can be found which include a Gallo Roman villa. It is thought that the old tow belonging to the Chateau belonged to the De Lescours during the 14th century and was renamed during 1580 to 1590.

Only three families have had the luxury of being owners of the estate of Ausone. The Lescours, the Lescures and the Chatonnet-Cantenat family, today the descendants of the family running Ausone dates back to 1690 when Pierre Chatonnet was officially confirmed as being the owner of the estate. Since then there have been five women descendants.

Editorial | Image Courtesy Of Chateau Ausone