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Art Series Chardonnay 2018

Leeuwin Estate, Margaret River, Australia

Leeuwin Estate
Margaret River Australia
  • 98
    Points
  • The 640 best
    of 3 290 954
    wines globally
  • 3 Pros of
    3 recommend
    this wine
30 98
  • Taste
  • Moment

  • Country ranking ?

    36

  • Producer ranking ?

    1

  • Decanting time

    -

  • When to drink

    2020-2035

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The Story

Leeuwin Estate – purchased by Trish and Denis Horgan - lies just south of the Margaret River township. The Art Series’ Block 20 vineyard lies on deeply weathered and laterised soils with rocky outcrops of gneiss and ironstone gravels. Pristine chardonnay fruit characters are preserved throughout vinification. The wine is 100% barrel fermented in selected new French oak and matured in the same barrel for approximately 12 months. These are rare ...

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Vintage 2018

AUSTRALIA: Very promising quality with the most optimistic reviewers declaring 2018 great in every region and for every variety. The more cautious view is that early frosts reduced yields, but that consistent good weather throughout the second half of the growing season actually resulted in great potential.

Barossa 2018 vintage to savor

The 2018 Barossa vintage was completed at the end of April 2018, with growers and winemakers satisfied...

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Latest Pro-tasting notes

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Written Notes

Art Series Margaret River Chardonnay 2018 – This was the wine which took Australian Chardonnay from the dark ages of oak-embalmed curiosities or simple sunshine in the bottle to wines of supreme quality, able to sit comfortably with the great Chardonnays of the world. For a time, it stood head and shoulders above anything else we could produce. These days, it has peers, from Margaret River and further afield, but it has never stumbled. It has remained as one of our absolute finest Chardonnays to this day, and this latest release will only confirm that. Whether or not it is the very best Chardonnay made in Australia is largely personal preference at this level, but there is no questioning that it is always a favourite. And a wine which always improves even further with time in the cellar. 

Fermentation in French oak and then a further 11 months in barrel. 

This release, obviously very young, explodes with stonefruit, nectarines, grilled nuts, peaches and a hint of vanillin oak, but it is well integrated and quite transparent. A note of honey emerges on the finish. 

The creamy, supple, seamless texture is a highlight and promises to become ever more thrilling in the coming years. It is already showing some early complexity and the flick of acidity carries it through to the extremely long finish, a finish which never drops in intensity. A wine which confidently walks the tightrope between elegance and sheer power but at all times, as with everything to do with this wine, it is impeccably balanced. 2018 seems yet another truly brilliant vintage in the region – but it seems that it almost always is. This scintillating Chardonnay will improve in the coming years (be in no hurry). A wine which deserves a score somewhere around the 98 to 100. I have gone 98, only because I have no doubt it is going to get even better. 98.

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  • 98p

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

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  • 98p

A more expressive – and complex – bouquet than this great, long-lived, wine normally offers at this age, the palate matching the bouquet in its depth and power. Grapefruit, spice and apple tart are its markers, and it's the vineyard that bestows its resilience. – James Halliday, Australian Wine Companion 98p

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  • 98p
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Information

Origin

Adelaide, Margaret River

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