The second wine of this brilliant château, the 2022 Chapelle D'Ausone checks in as 65% Cabernet Franc, 35% Merlot, and the rest Cabernet Sauvignon that was raised 20 months in barrels. Classic Cabernet Franc notes of black raspberries, currants, spring flowers, candied violets, and sappy mint herbs all shine here, and it's medium to full-bodied on the palate, with a pure, layered, seamless mouthfeel, ripe tannins, and a great finish. While it's not the best vintage for the second wines, you wouldn't know it by tasting this.

A great vintage that shows the paradox of limestone, its ability to deliver fragrance and finesse and a touch of austerity even in the most opulent of vintages. 100% new oak for ageing, last year of organic conversion. A beautiful Chapelle that will charm for decades.

Ripe blackcurrants, black liquorice, bitter chocolate, violets. Zingy and clean before smooth, mouth-coating tannins arrive. Salty liquorice gives a flinty texture, this has restrained power with fresh elegance. Exquisite and precise, well-crafted but needs time. Maybe a hint of tar on the finish alongside flashes of heat from the alcohol.

Really bright and open with flowers and plums as well as blueberries. It's medium- to full- bodied with creamy and round tannins and a vivid finish. Lots of energy and fruitiness. Second wine of Ausone. 60% cabernet franc, 35% merlot and 5% cabernet sauvignon. Drink after 2028.

At first, you experience the intense floral aromas before the espresso, black raspberries, cherries, licorice, and a variety of spices awaken the nose. Medium-bodied, creamy, lush, and fresh, with a pronounced sense of minerality, the wine envelops your palate with chocolate, mint, licorice, and black cherries, before revealing salty, crushed rocks and stones at the finish. The wine blends 60% Cabernet Franc, 35% Merlot, and 5% Cabernet Sauvignon. Drink from 2027-2048.

The 2022 Chapelle d'Ausone has turned out nicely, offering up aromas of sweet mulberries, blackberries and plums mingled with hints of violets, mint and creamy new oak. Medium to full-bodied, rich and textural, it's concentrated and generously extracted, with ripe acids and a saline, oak-inflected finish. - William Kelley

The 2022 Chapelle d'Ausone is a heady, imposing Saint-Émilion. Deep and layered, Chapelle d'Ausone is an undeniably serious wine. It offers notable textural resonance and volume, with a mix of unctuous richness and vibrancy that is distinctive. The blend is 60% Cabernet Franc, 35% Merlot and 5% Cabernet Sauvignon, with the Cabernets very much driving the blend. Even so, this is a decidedly big Chapelle that hides its elevated alcohol well. -- Antonio Galloni

The blend here majors on Cabernet Franc, at 60% of the total, with 40% Merlot, and the élevage was in 100% new oak, gently toasted, for 20 months. A nose of confit blackcurrant and blackberry, with violet cream and white peach purity. The Cabernet shows beautifully here, but even this does not prepare you for the absolute harmony and finesse displayed on the palate, the wine caressing every taste bud like it were silk, easing itself along in a diaphanous fashion, before the ripe tannic structure begins to poke through the fibres. Dark fruits, floral nuances, wonderful freshness and lift, the finish light-footed and joyous, surely this is the best La Chapelle d’Ausone ever? Well, one of them, at least A super second wine, with a long grip, and fine cellaring potential. The alcohol on the label is 15%, which fits with that confit concentration on the nose, but there is no suggestion of heat on the palate, and the fruit is pure. I can only admire it. - Chris Kissack