Leeuwin Estate Art Series Chardonnay 2018

99+ Points Ray Jordan
98 Points & Special Value Wine Erin Larkin
96 Points Campbell Mattinson

The “Art Series” represents Leeuwin’s most opulent & ageworthy wines from each vintage. They are identified with paintings commissioned from leading contemporary Australian artists.

Immaculate, powerful, intense nose with purity and clarity of primary fruit characterised by pear, white peach, lime curd and custard apple. There are infinite layers of brioche, grilled hazelnuts, cinnamon quill, shaved nutmeg, black cardamom and almond meal. A thread of graphite in the background adds elegant complexity.

Penetration and drive with incredible shape and frame on the palate. The symmetry of layers, contours and overall balance is precise. Pear, cut lime and nectarine are definite throughout. Sweet spice and elegant oak use sit neatly with the fruit, underlined by a delicate acid line, leading to a palate with effortless length. – Source Winery

“Let’s put it this way. This is the closest I have come to awarding a wine 100 points…Stellar wine from a stellar vintage. The remarkable this is that this is a wine 100 percent barrel fermented in new French oak barriques with regular lees stirring for 11 months – and it certainly doesn’t taste excessive, or even slightly oak. It has such high-fidelity purity with complex seductive aromatics of vanilla bean and light oatmeal with a cutting minerality and spicy lift. But the palate, oh the palate. This is where things start to explode. Power, poise and persistence with a dry savouriness balancing the intense ripe fruit. It is such a long finish with an ever so slightly, charry finish completing a remarkable wine”. – 99+ Points Ray Jordan

“The first thing I noticed here was the intensity. The fruit intensity. It’s a striking wine, explosive in a refined way, elegant and textural at once, persistent. Its presence and power can be admired and enjoyed now but wow does this have a future, and a long one. White peach, citrus, pear, sweet cedar and almonds. The whole is more than its parts. It’s beautiful, pure, exemplary.” – 96 Points Campbell Mattinson, The Wine Front.

“Cool destemmed fruit with some skin contact. The juice was settled for 3 days, racked and inoculated with yeast. 100% of the juice was fermented in new French oak barriques with the lees stirred regularly. After 11 months in barrels the various components were blended, fined (bentonite, PVPP, milk) and cold stabilized. Bottled 19–21 August 2019. Benchmark pedigree Margaret River chardonnay from the perfect 2018 vintage. Kaffir leaf, ocean spray, nectarine, yellow peach, custard apple and white peach are the start. Saffron curls, vanilla pod and freshly grated nutmeg frame saline acidity, crouched and coiled. Length of flavour extends across the palate in an endless procession of texture and complexity. All of the power, grace and excellence of previous years is here, amplified.” – 98 Points & Special Value Wine Erin Larkin