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Now Viewing: Chateau Ausone
Whenever a Bordeaux virgin enquires which chateau they should cake the soles of their shoes with, I reply: Chateau Ausone. At the moment this Saint Emilion vineyard can not put a foot wrong: a magnificent terroir; an apocryphal history starring a Roman poet; the panaromaic vista over the Dourdogne; the fairytale door, carved into the limestone terrace straight from the pages of C.S. Lewis and fundamentally, a wine that is rapidly assuming the mantle as the greatest Right Bank wine. There is an enigmatic quality to Ausone; magic pervades every nook and cranny, and that includes the wine The chateau takes its title from the Roman poet Ausonius who owned over 100 acres of vineyard around Saint Emilion. It is said that he owned a grand villa in Lucaniac (the ancient name for the town), although whether it occupied the exact same location as the present vineyard is perhaps a romantic notion. However archaeological digs have unearthed ruins dating from Roman times and so perhaps one day we will be able to verify the true extent of their viticultural influence around the area. The modern era can be traced back to Jean Cantenat whose family owned the land since the early 1700's though it was the Lafargue Family who consolidated Ausone's reputation. It was the fortitude and nous of Edouard Dubois who inherited the estate when he was betrothed to Mlle Challon, niece of the proprietor Mme Lafargue, that guided the estate through turbulent times at the end of the 19th century when the area was devastated by phylloxera and oidium.
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