Ausone 1988

Duty Paid

£400.00

Ausone 1988

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Ausone 1988

HED99553

75 cl

12.5%

£400.00

Taxes included.

Pay ex-VAT when shipping outside the UK

Wine Storage

Storing with Hedonism Wines

Secure, Professional Storage for Your Fine Wines

Hedonism Wines is pleased to offer bonded storage to our clients, providing a secure, fully insured, and professionally managed facility for en primeur and under-bond purchases. Our storage service ensures that your fine wines are kept in optimal conditions until you are ready to enjoy them.

Why Choose Bonded Storage with Hedonism Wines?

Your wines will be stored at our bonded storage facility, a highly regarded bonded warehouse in Essex, just outside London. With over a decade of experience handling and storing fine wines and spirits, our facility maintains strict temperature and humidity controls to ensure your collection is preserved at its best.

Key benefits include:

One year of free storage when you start storing at Hedonism Wines.
Competitive storage rates: £15 per 12-bottle case per year, £7.50 per 6-bottle case per year, equivalent to £1.25 per standard bottle. Alternative formats will be charged accordingly.
Full insurance coverage for loss or breakage.
Quick and efficient delivery: Wines can be cleared and delivered within the UK in 3-4 working days.
Quarterly invoicing for storage fees to keep the process simple and transparent.
Easily manage your stored wines online, request condition reports, and track your collection effortlessly.
Flexibility to store wines purchased elsewhere, subject to our approval.

Storage Pricing

Below is a summary of our bonded storage costs:

Service	Cost
Inbounding fee	Free
Withdrawal fee	Free
Storage and insurance (12-bottle case)	£15 per year
Storage and insurance (6-bottle case)	£7.50 per year

Duty Charges

Below is a summary of the new duty charges per bottle as of February 2026. Please note that these vary depending on the ABV and are subject to change. Please get in touch if you require more information:

Product	Duty charge
Wine 12.5% ABV	£2.87 per 75cl bottle
Wine 13.5% ABV	£3.10 per 75cl bottle
Wine 14.5% ABV	£3.33 per 75cl bottle
Spirits 45% ABV	£11.47 per 70cl bottle

Transparent Billing and Rate Calculations

Annual Billing: Clients are invoiced annually based on the wines stored in the preceding year.
Case Equivalents: A case is defined as 9 litres of wine (typically twelve 750ml bottles), ensuring clarity in pricing.
Pro-Rata Charges: Storage fees are charged on a per-bottle basis, and wines stored for part of a month will be billed accordingly.

How to Use Our Bonded Storage

Purchase en primeur or under-bond wines from Hedonism Wines.
Automatically enjoy twelve months of free storage at our bonded storage when you open your storage account.
After twelve months, your storage will continue at the rates outlined above, with quarterly invoicing.
When you are ready to receive your wines, simply request delivery. Most orders are fulfilled within 3-4 working days.

With Hedonism Wines' bonded storage, you can buy with confidence, knowing your wines are in safe hands until you are ready to enjoy them. If you have any questions or would like to learn more about our storage service, please contact our team.

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Ausone 1988 is a mature-vintage Right Bank Bordeaux red wine from the St-Emilion appellation. Ausone is situated on the western edge of Saint-Emilion and ranked in the highest possible category for quality – Premier Grand Cru Classe (A). Producing around 2,000 cases a year from around 7 hectares of vines, the wine is usually an equal split of Cabernet Franc and Merlot. "Bottle proffered for my birthday. Deep garnet core with faint, thin dark brick rim. The nose is quite spicy, earthy and Graves in style. Burnt toast, turning more mulberry-ish with aeration. The palate is tannic at first but becomes more rounded with notes of blueberries and cassis. Backward but focused and very long. A bit frayed on the finish, a touch of volatility. A very fine Ausone that needs another 3-5 years to reach its peak." Neal Martin, 2004

1988

Red

Saint-Emilion Grand Cru

Chateau Ausone

Premier Grand Cru Classe A

Bordeaux, France

Bordeaux Blend Red

92 Vinous

The 1988 Ausone shows extremely well after 31 years. It remains lucid in colour with little ageing on the rim. The bouquet is clean, with so much fruit that it comes across more like a 1989 than a 1988. It sports none of the leanness or greenness one sometimes finds with Right Bank 1988s, just lovely black plum and mulberry fruit, hints of allspice and iodine. The palate is medium-bodied, well balanced and underpinned by slightly brawny tannins. However this is compensated by endearing plummy fruit, truffle and a subtle marine influence towards the finish. Consumed over the course of a 2-3 hour lunch it improves with aeration and it never loses an ounce of joie de vivre. No, the 1988 is not the most complex Ausone, however, it is certainly the most pleasurable from the decade. Drink this now as it will not improve further, but well-stored bottles will give another decade of drinking pleasure. Neal Martin1st April 2019

80 Robert Parker

Dark ruby with some pink at the edge, the 1988 Ausone exhibits notes of licorice, fennel seed, cinnamon, mineral, and red and black currants. In the mouth, the wine is light to medium-bodied and relatively disappointing. Again, a narrowness and hardness make for a wine that just simply doesn`t deliver. The emperor`s new clothes ... again and again. Anticipated maturity. Now-2020. Last tasted, 11/02. - Robert M. Parker, Jr.

Chateau Ausone

An Historic Saint-Émilion Estate

Named after the Roman poet Ausonius, who kept around 100 acres of vineyards in and around the area, Château Ausone is one of only four wines to be ranked Premier Grand Cru Classé A in the classification of Saint-Émilion wine. The winery is located on the Right Bank, close to the actual town of Saint-Émilion in Bordeaux. The smallest of the First Growths - with only seven hecatres of vines - 10% of which goes into producing the second wine, La Chapelle d'Ausone.

With its characteristic fresh limestone soils, Château Ausone produces wonderfully mineral red wines, all farmed organically. The key grape varieties are Cabernet Franc and Merlot, with smaller percentages of Cabernet Sauvignon and Petit Verdot also planted.

Bordeaux, France

Chateau Ausone