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This shows some noticeable maturity at first, with black tea and mulling spice notes out front, but there’s a lovely spine of briary tannins and finely beaded acidity that pulls this back to a fresher side as the core of raspberry pâte de fruit slowly wakes up, throwing off additional cherry, currant and plum nuances. By the time this all knits through the finish, you realize it’s just a bit too soon to open this beauty. Best from 2020 through 2035.Wine Spectator | 97 WSA major vintage, where the tough spring gave way to a beautiful summer. Here it’s the Cabernet Franc that’s dominant, giving lift and aromatic complexity that seems to take a hold as it rolls through the palate. Raspberry leaf, blackcurrant and liquorice are all dominant. It’s still extremely young, so you can take your time opening any bottles that you have of this beautiful wine. Drinking Window 2018 - 2030.Decanter | 96 DECI am really loving the nose here, sweet ripe fruit, raspberries and strawberries, and flowers. Full-bodied, with fine tannins and great freshness on the long finish. This is starting to open up now, this is pure and precise with just a hint of fresh herb showing the Cabernet Franc character. This still needs five years. Pull the cork after 2015.James Suckling | 95 JSA gorgeous wine of grace, elegance, and power, this youthful 2000 will benefit from another five years of cellaring. It appears to have 25 more years of life ahead of it. A deep ruby/purple color is just beginning to lighten at the edges. The bouquet offers up scents of cedar wood, melted licorice, black currants, blackberries, caramel, and mocha. Medium to full-bodied, elegant, and pure with low acidity as well as formidable tannins in the long finish, the 2000 should rival vintages such as 2005, 2006, and 2009.Robert Parker | 95 RPThe 2000 Vieux-Château-Certan is a Pomerol that I had not encountered for some time. Perhaps this vintage has lost some of its initial luster, not least because the consensus from winemakers and consumers alike is that the appellation performed far better in 2001. This millennial VCC has a saturnine nose even after almost two decades, offering dusky black fruit, hints of chimney soot and tobacco, and later a whiff of licorice. It remains stubborn and sultry. The palate is quite muscular for a VCC, although fine acidity lends it tension. Where one might criticize Alexandre Thienpont’s wine for its lack of refinement and panache, for failing to realize the potential it showed during its first decade. As such, I would afford it another three or four years in bottle to see if it brightens up.Vinous Media | 92 VM(Vieux-Château-Certan (Pomerol)) The 2000 vintage of Vieux-Château-Certan is quite shut down at the present time and is not too interested in being bothered during its hibernation. It may end up being in the same league as the 2000 Figeac, but for the moment, it is hard to see all of its facets, as it is compacted down on itself and rather grumpy. With some extended aeration, the wine reluctantly offers up scents of dark berries, cassis, cigar ash, a fine base of dark soil tones and a bit of nutty new oak. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied and plenty structured, with a rock solid core, firm, well-integrated tannins and good length and grip on the well-balanced finish. It is possible that this wine will end up being even better than I predict, as it is sleeping deeply at the moment, but it seems to me that this may well be one of those wines from 2000 that never quite sheds the more sullen side of the vintage. Time will tell. (Drink between 2030-2085).John Gilman | 92+ JG

Perfumed nose, full of pot pourri, scented flowers, dried raspberries and cherries. Really quite evocative, maybe in a vertical you’d pick this out from the nose but it smells wonderful and rich with cool blueberries. Round and charming, this is gorgeously soft, tannins are so inviting, caressing the mouth, not deep at all, this is delicate and primed to float across the tongue, registering the flavours but no heaviness. Almost ethereal in its performance. Really very delicious, full of flavour and character. Gorgeous styling and only got better after half an hour in the glass. Succulent, mineral, graphite, limestone touches on the finish remind you where you are.Decanter | 97 DECFull-bodied, but so elegant and fresh, with a silky, elegant tannin texture. Very deep and expansive. Lots going on already with plenty of perfume. Blueberries, cloves, lavender and some wild-berry notes. Dark cocoa, too. Some espresso character at the end. Wonderful interplay of spices and fruit. Long. It keeps going.James Suckling | 96-97 JSWith 65% Cabernet Franc, this is a structured wine. Fine perfumes show in the sandalwood and toast aromas, and this luscious wine is dense and solid with tannins for aging. It is concentrated, but with elegance and a bold freshness at the end. Drink from 2028. Wine Enthusiast | 96 WEA blend of 65% Cabernet Franc and 35% Merlot, the 2021 Ausone has a deep garnet-purple color. It storms out of the glass with an initial burst of juicy black plums, blackberries, and Bing cherries, leading to an undercurrent of fragrant soil, wet slate, lilacs, and tar, with a touch of bay leaves. The light-bodied palate has impressive intensity and tension, featuring a frame of beautifully ripe, rounded tannins to support the tightly stacked black and red berry layers, finishing long and mineral-laced. Around 16,000 bottles were made.The Wine Independent | 96 TWIThe 2021 Ausone is a gorgeous wine, but it is also quite reticent and in need of time to come around. The operative word here is balance, as all the elements are so well put together. Soft, gentle contours wrap around a core of succulent red/purplish fruit, blood orange, spice, lavender, rose petal and dried herbs. The 2021 is compelling.Vinous Media | 95 VMThe 2021 Ausone was the fruit of a challenging growing season, the estate’s second year in organic conversion coinciding with notable diseases pressure, but the resulting blend of 65% Cabernet Franc and 35% Merlot (featuring a touch more Cabernet Franc than normal) was one of the most seductive wines of the en primeur campaign, its exotic perfume and crystalline purity evoking the great Ausone vintages of yesteryear and offering an unvarnished representation of this superb limestone terroir. In bottle, the 2021 remains an excellent wine, but at least out of the gates, its élevage (in 90% new oak, predominantly from Demptos and Taransaud, with four rackings) has taken the lead, intermingling aromas of vanilla, spices and toast with discreet notes of minty dark berries, cherries, petals and pencil shavings. On the palate, it’s medium to full-bodied, layered and fleshy, with an ample and enveloping core of fruit that retains its energy and purity but which gives way to a finish marked by somewhat assertive barrel tannins. Given the inherent quality of the wine and the terroir, I’m sure time will be kind to it, but I’m not quite sure it will ever realize the magical potential it showed in April 2022.Robert Parker Wine Advocate | 94+ RPThe Grand Vin 2021 Château Ausone is Cabernet Franc-dominated, made from 65% Cabernet Franc and 35% Merlot that saw the same 20 months in 90% new French oak. It offers classic notes of redcurrants, cassis, iron, spicy wood, and graphite, with hints of tobacco and thyme in the background. Rich, medium to full-bodied, concentrated, and tight on the palate, it has beautiful mid-palate depth, ripe, balanced yet present tannins, and a gorgeous finish. It will need 7-8 years, if not a decade, to hit maturity but is a beautiful, elegant, gorgeous Ausone that will be one of the longest-lived in the vintage.Jeb Dunnuck | 94 JD