Miss the Malartic? Here's Ausone's Next-Door Neighbor at Less than 1/13th The Price!

In 2014, the Vauthier family, proprietor Alain Vauthier of Chateau Ausone, purchased his next-door neighbor, Chateau la Clotte, from the previous long-time owners.

Can’t say we weren’t happily surprised at the news.  La Clotte had always been one of those head-scratchers in St. Emilion, some of the most brilliant terroir, right on the limestone côte, next door to Ausone, but the wines were always good, never great.

Until the Vauthiers ‘rolled into town’.

I gotta say, from our visits here it’s certainly one of the coolest properties to visit.  Literally carved into the limestone, much of the facility has a cave-y feel, and the vineyards are gorgeous, rambling up the hillside in tiny micro-parcels that are vinified separately by the Ausone team.

In the past, this was a sleeper wine with the locals, who knew the quality of the dirt, knew the wine would always be reasonably priced because it wasn’t necessarily ‘upper-tier’ or ‘high-scoring’ (though the dirt was!) and the plush, mineral-laden wine would cellar well considering its origins.

The impact that the Ausone team has made on this 2015, their first vintage in control, and a great vintage at that, has been immediate. Are you kidding me?  The gang at Ausone better be careful, this juice is already nipping at Ausone’s heels and they’re just getting started!

And who knows down the line (after their replanting program is completed) if part of the plan is folding a bit of La Clotte into the Grand Vin at Ausone or, I’m thinking, a further ‘pumping up’ of Chapelle d’Ausone, the chateau’s $200 second wine.

Regardless, this juice is at least Chapelle d’Ausone quality in 2015 at less than half the price of that wine, produced literally right next door.  Map please!