Tasted 11 Times After Bottling With Ratings In The Low To Mid-90's The finest Ausone of the seventies, and along with Lafite-Rothschild of Pauillac, one of the two outstandingly great wines of this vintage, the 1976 Ausone is indeed a profound wine. Surprisingly dark colored for the vintage, with a voluptuous, intense, complex bouquet of minerals, licorice, truffles, and ripe, spicy blackcurrant fruit, this full-bodied, powerful, large-scaled Ausone has remarkable size given the vintage. Amazingly, it is a bigger wine than more recent Ausone such as the 1978, 1979, 1985, and 1986. It is a winemaking triumph for this difficult vintage. Anticipated maturity: now-2010.

Loads of blackberry, plum and strawberry. Intense fruit. Full-bodied, with velvety tannins and layers of everything. Wonderful balance and refinement. Closed up already. Very serious wine. Best after 2012.