Leeuwin Estate Art Series Chardonnay has been famous since 1980s. Today, their wines are better than ever! More measured use of oak, good freshness and precision and not overripe nor 'fat' like those early 2000s Art Chardonnay that we tasted. We were so impressed with this wine that we did a blind tasting among a flight of 3 Chardonnay (all 2017 vintage) among 30 persons over zoom. Half of the audience voted for this wine. Tied with Benjamin Leroux Chassagne Montrachet Les Embazees 2017. We were really impressed when we tasted it in the morning before the zoom blind. MUST BUY! Drink now but will age beautifully for the next 10 to 15 years! Must keep too! Load up if you can!
Super highly rated of course:
99 points James Halliday
This achieves another step up the quality ladder for Leeuwin Estate, seemingly impossible. There's been no change in the vinification, nor in the vineyard. The change is an increase in the intensity of the flavours, and hence their length and aftertaste. It's an extraordinary wine, among the greatest of Burgundy (and elsewhere in the world). Whatever you expect from its future development will be delivered.
(8/2020)
98 points Bob Campbell
Light yellow, a very youthful colour. The bouquet has substantial oak as well as some tropical fruit, cashew nut and fluffy yeast aromas. The palate is very intense and vibrant, with nervy acidity and richness to match, the aftertaste lingering on and on. A power-packed wine that is compact and tightly-packaged, latent like an unexploded bomb! Intense and sustained grapefruit and lemon aftertaste. An impressive, high-impact chardonnay of great potential. The sheer power of the fruit is awesome. - Huon Hooke (The Real Review)
(3/2020)
96 points James Suckling
Such complexity and resolve make for a very attractive nose with peaches, grapefruit, cedary oak spice, gunflint and wet stones. The palate has a plush, smoothly resolved texture with a rich, creamy texture and all-encompassing, ripe stone-fruit flavors, ahead of a very long, smooth finish. Grilled-hazelnut and apricot-kernel flavors to close. Great to drink now, but certainly a decade of cellaring in the tank, too.
(4/2020)
96 points Wine & Spirits
Opens rich and lush, with grilled pineapple, ripe pear and fleshy apricot flavors. Details of mineral, lime skin and Meyer lemon add a fresh thread of acidity and a sense of precision, finishing with a note of sesame seed. Drink now through 2030.
(9/2020)