Lastly, the Grand Vin 2022 Château Ausone is based on equal parts Cabernet Franc and Merlot that spent 20 months in new barrels. Smoky black cherries, mulberries, iron, violets, and spring flower notes are just some of its nuances, and it's deep purple-hued, with full-bodied richness and a surprising level of elegance, purity, and precision. This is one of the more elegant, finesse-driven, yet still incredibly powerful examples of this Château that I can remember. It deserves a decade of cellaring and will evolve for half a century.

The 2022 Ausone has a generous, quite floral bouquet, with rose petal and iris flower infusing the red fruit, very well defined with an assiduous use of oak. The palate is medium-bodied with supple tannins, fresh and vibrant, smooth in texture with quite a linear, sorbet-fresh finish. Very long on the aftertaste, excellent. Tasted blind at the Southwold tasting in London.

The 2022 Ausone opens in the glass with a brooding bouquet of raspberry preserve, licorice, rose petals and creamy new oak. Full-bodied, deep and dense, it's layered and textural, with a sweet core of fruit framed by powdery, youthfully grippy tannins, concluding with a discreetly heady finish. It's a serious, structured Ausone that will require a bit of patience.