Château Ausone

The château

Decimus Magnus Ausonius, born at Bordeaux in 310, orator all his life, tutor and then consul under the emperor Gratian, had a property called Lucaniacum, and little doubt is left that it stood where the château stands: plowing here has turned up farm tools, mosaics of vines and fragments of statues. The vineyard is on record at least as early as 1592, and at the end of the 16th century the place took the poet’s name, worn down over time through Casteau Dauzone and Château Dosone to Château Ausone.

The family has held Ausone since 1690 and the estate has never been sold, though it has passed through daughters often enough that the name over the door changed: Cantenat, then Lafargue, then Dubois-Challon, then Vauthier. The trade took its measure quickly. Charles Cocks and Édouard Féret, whose Bordeaux et ses vins was the reference book of the Bordeaux trade, first carried Ausone in 1868, under Cantenat, and for 30 years printed it second in the commune, behind Bel-Air, at 8 to 10 tonneaux (the old Bordeaux measure of a crop, 900 liters, or 4 barrels). In 1897 Féret moved it to the head of Saint-Émilion because of the wholly exceptional and constant premium its wine obtained, and noted that the widow Lafargue had kept all the old ungrafted French vines of the property, a rare thing in Saint-Émilion.

Alain Vauthier and his sister Catherine bought out their aunt Hélyette Dubois-Challon’s share in 1997, and Alain runs the estate and makes the wine with his daughter Pauline, an enologist, who joined in 2005. Édouard Vauthier came back in 2019 and Constance, after 7 years as a veterinarian, in 2020: the 11th generation. In July 2021, before the deadline for the files of 2022, Ausone left the Saint-Émilion classification, together with Cheval Blanc; it had been a Premier Grand Cru Classé A. Pauline Vauthier gave the reason plainly: “Marketing and wine tourism are very nice things, but the measure of great wine comes down to terroir, viticulture and time.”

The vineyard is 7 hectares in a single plot around the château, on the asteriated limestone of the plateau and on limestone with clay, facing east southeast, ringed at the top of the slope by a belt of rock, old collapsed quarries that shelter it from the north wind. It is mostly Cabernet Franc with less Merlot, planted at 6,500 to 12,600 vines a hectare, vines 50 years old on average and some close to 100. The farming borrows from organic and biodynamic practice, with preparations of nettle, willow and valerian, but follows no rulebook. Yields run about 33 hectoliters a hectare and the estate makes roughly 1,500 cases. Chapelle d’Ausone, from younger vines, spends 20 months in new barrels in the underground quarries.

When I tasted a lineup of 7 wines at the estate in April 2025, ending with Chapelle d’Ausone and Ausone itself, all of them showed well, but Ausone was on another level: 65% Cabernet Franc and 35% Merlot, vibrant, complex and precise, with red and black fruit, a smoky edge, balanced acidity and the structure to keep.

At a glance

Appellation

Saint-Émilion Grand Cru

Commune

Saint-Émilion, on the côte

Classification

Premier Grand Cru Classé A until 2021; left the classification before the list of 2022; Michelin Guide, 2 grapes (2026)

Owners

The Vauthier family, since 1690

Direction

Alain Vauthier, with his daughter Pauline, enologist, since 2005; Laurent Vallet, vineyard; Philippe Baillarguet, cellar master

Vineyard

7 hectares in a single plot; 6,500 to 12,600 vines a hectare; vines 50 years old on average, some near 100

Soil

Asteriated limestone of the plateau; limestone with clay Terroir of Saint-Émilion →

Grapes

Mostly Cabernet Franc, with less Merlot

Farming

Organic and biodynamic methods, applied flexibly

Production

About 1,500 cases, at about 33 hectoliters a hectare

Wines

Château Ausone; Chapelle d’Ausone, 20 months in new barrels in underground quarries

In history

Second to Bel-Air from 1868; at the head of Saint-Émilion from 1897