The Evolution of Leeuwin’s Art Series Chardonnay
What Makes Leeuwin Chardonnay So Iconic? A Journey Through the Vintages…
The Context:
"I’ve gone on record more times than I care to count saying the Leeuwin Art Series is Australia’s greatest chardonnay."
- James Halliday
Apollo Magazine’s Perspective
The Margaret River wine region is found in a remote part of Western Australia, approximately 300 kilometres south of Perth, but its geographical isolation has accelerated its reputation for winemaking excellence. Its output is relatively new compared to that of other regions in Australia, but is consistently lauded by the international wine community. (The region produces only 2 per cent of Australian wines, but 20 per cent of its premium ones.) Notable critics and industry leaders, from the Mondavi family to Jancis Robinson, have been championing these wines since ‘Margs’ came on to the scene in the 1970s.
Of the 214 vineyards in the region, Leeuwin Estate has established the most formidable reputation. Its range of premium wines, known as the ‘Art Series’, is adorned with labels featuring works from an array of 20th-century Australian artists, from John Olsen to Arthur Boyd and Sidney Nolan to Fred Williams. The wines include Cabernet Sauvignon and Shiraz, as well as cooler varietals: Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc and the flagship Chardonnay. ‘We call it the art of fine wine,’ says co-founder Denis Horgan, ‘and a fine winery. It’s the same thing, isn’t it? Yes. Art and fine wine blend in together here.’
The estate’s senior wine-maker, Tim Lovett, is keenly aware of how the art complements the wines and vice versa. He collects art himself, particularly art made by First Nations people that depicts the natural beauty and spirituality of the Australian landscape. The Leeuwin Estate Shiraz, first released in 1999, was dedicated solely to First Nations artists such as the Andinyin and Kitja painter Ngarra and Alyawarre woman Minnie Pwerle, who found success late in life with her vibrant paintings of scenes from her country.
For centuries, French winemaking was considered the gold standard for newer regions to emulate, just as Australian landscape painting was for a long time ruled by the principles of European fine art. Through its approach to winemaking, Leeuwin Estate is making its mark on both the old ways and the new.
- Apollo Magazine, March 2024
Our cellared and museum collection of Leeuwin Art Series wines is far too rich to capture in a single blog post. So, in celebration of our upcoming ‘20 Vintage Vertical – Leeuwin Art Series Chardonnay’ event, we’re showcasing each of the 20 vintages, 2003 to 2022, with context, winemaker notes, critic scores, and where available, we’ve also linked each wine to our online store, so you can experience the magic for yourself…
2003
95 Points - Tyson Stelzer
This is a chardonnay with jaw-dropping texture and mouth-feel. The finish is amazingly persistent with fine acidity and cashew nut complexity supporting its excellent white peach, nectarine and apricot fruit. It was bottled just the day before I tasted it at Leeuwin, and if this is the description of a bottle-shocked wine then I'm speechless!
2007
95 Points - Robert Parker, The Wine Advocate
Around 3000 cases of the flagship Art Series Chardonnay are produced with Leeuwin Estate blocks 20, 22, 96 and 97 contributing to the blend (all Gin-Gin / Mendoza clone). It is all barrel fermented in 100% new French oak where it usually remains for around 12 months. The 2007 Art Series Chardonnay was still youthfully mute revealing a moderate intensity of peaches, oatmeal, chalk, lemon zest, ginger, anise and jasmine with the oak barely perceptible in the background. Rich, ripe, full bodied yet wonderfully structured with crisp acidity and a real minerality, this beauty has a very long finish with the oak integration already nearly seamless.
2011
98 Points - James Halliday, The Wine Companion
There is always cause to genuflect in the presence of chardonnay royalty, such as that of Leeuwin Estate. It imposes its will without a flicker of effort; the line between citrus and stone fruit, and between oak and mineral comes and goes, leaving you grasping at straws; it's a wine of flawless balance, line and length. Drink by 2031.
2015
99 Points - Ray Jordan, The West Australian
It was almost inevitable that if a West Australian white wine was ever going to score 99 points, it would have to be Leeuwin Estate's Art Series chardonnay. After much deliberation, a vertical tasting of previous greats from the estate and reflection on my tastings over the years, I convinced myself the recently released 2015 justified the score. There have only been three white wines I have awarded 99 points, two rieslings made by the great John Vickery in the 70s, and a Hunter Valley semillon, so the Leeuwin is in rarefied air. The latest iteration is a mighty wine that carries the indelible stamp of power from its famous Margaret River source vineyard, Block 20, but there is a new degree of delicacy and precision. And perhaps even more extraordinary is that the length on the palate, always the hallmark of great wines, has pushed new boundaries.
2020
White Wine of the Year 2024 &
99 points - Ray Jordan, Business News
It would not surprise me if this was considered the greatest Leeuwin chardonnay yet. You would get no argument from me... there is elegance and power here. Subtle layered wine. It was a year of great concentration and power. Has pear and lime character that is part of the DNA. The fruit is generous, especially about the mid palate. Has a subtle and not overstated flinty character with a lift of spice. The oak is brilliantly managed and complementary. It's very tight and precise and the whole-bunch technique gives it that stalky, phenolics character. There's a savoury almond meal character on the finish. Incredible length and power here. The minerally character on the finish is quite pronounced. In the top three, certainly, of any Leeuwin chardonnay.
2004
96 Points - James Halliday, Halliday’s Wine Companion
The fruit literally sings, appropriate given Leeuwin’s annual concerts; white peach, nectarine and grapefruit are the sopranos, barrel ferment and mlf the orchestra behind, the result seamless but synergistic.
2008
97 Points - James Halliday, The Wine Companion
Still pale quartz-green; the finesse of Art Series Chardonnay when it is young is every bit as enjoyable as is the complexity it gains after six or seven years in bottle (under screwcap), its future still assured. We know that good bottles from the mid-1980s are still glorious, although most are now a shadow of their former selves. What we don't really know is how long the wines such as this live and flourish under screwcap.
2012
18.9 Points - John Jens, Western Suburbs Weekly
Leeuwin Estate has released 33 Art Series Chardonnays since the 1980 initial vintage. They are unquestionably Australia's most consistent great chardonnay producers over those decades, and the three most recent vintage releases, the 2010, 2011 and 2012, merely confirm that status. In the past 12 months, the 2011 Leeuwin Art Series Chardonnay was awarded James Halliday's Wine Companion Chardonnay of the Year. It was more recently selected as the number five wine in the American Wine Spectator's (the world's most influential commercially available wine magazine) Top 100 International Wines for 2014- which is based on price, quantity and quality. The 2010 vintage is even better drinking at the moment. The 2012 Leeuwin Estate Art Series has just been released. This wine has all of the great length of Australia's finest white wines but is of a change of style in that it is leaner, less viscous and opulent and has slightly more beautiful balance and texturing, with high-quality fine-grained oak characters. It is of a higher-quality European style than the usually fuller Margaret River examples. Leeuwin Estate's chardonnays consistently hit their best at eight to 12 years of age and then gradually improve for approximately eight to 10 years, so this wine will still be magnificent in 2030. Drink 2017-2030. The chardonnay's great, lean and dry length, magnificent finish and after-taste ensure that it is another classic that is amongst Leeuwin's eight to 10 greatest chardonnay releases. This immediately puts the wine amongst the top 20 Australian chardonnays ever made.
2016
100 Points - Andrew Caillard MW, The Vintage Journal
Pale colour. Fresh flinty, lemon curd, bitter lemon, grapefruit aromas with yeasty, vanilla, roasted hazelnut. Generous ripe peach, nectarine, grapefruit, pear flavours, fine silky textures, superb mid palate creaminess and integrated mineral acidity. Finishes al dente with crunchy nectarine fruits and underlying savoury notes. Lovely extract, volume and persistency. A racehorse. Drink: Now-2036.
2021
Top 100 Wines of 2024 &
98 points - Nick Ryan, The Weekend Australian
One of the icons of Australian wine, and in peak form. There’s always been a sense of latent power to Leeuwin chardonnays – it’s not necessarily in your face, but you just feel it’s there. This has white peaches and nectarines, some enlivening lime zest, grilled cashews and spice. The layers reveal themselves the longer you spend with it – a sign of real class. The legend grows.
2005
97 Points - James Halliday, The Weekend Australian
Awesome power, grace, depth and finesse; pure grapefruit, nectarine and peach flesh aromas are framed by complex, toasty, grilled nuts; the palate is amazingly concentrated, yet portrays a lightness that is completely beguiling and incredibly long.
2009
98 Points - James Halliday, The Wine Companion
Craftmanship of the highest order in the vineyard and winery have combined to create a perfect example with this wine. The intensity and power unwind effortlessly, but with multiple aroma and flavour messages from the barrel fermentation and subsequent maturation of the fully ripe, pink grapefruit and peach at its core.
2013
98 points and Top 100 Wines of 2016 - James Halliday, Halliday Wine Companion
It is supremely elegant and finely balanced, and has absorbed the new oak in a manner worthy of a Grand Cru White Burgundy, leaving the fragrant bouquet and finely structured palate of startling length to occupy centre stage. Screwcap. 13.5% alc. Drink by: 2033.
2017
#1 Chardonnay Varietal Winner 2021 &
99 Points - James Halliday, Halliday Wine Companion 2021
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.
2018
99+ Points - Ray Jordan, The West Weekend
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 thing 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.
2022
97 points - Erin Larkin, Wine Advocate
The 2022 season was warm and low-yielding, particularly for Chardonnay, and many of the wines produced in the region this season can be typified by their nuttiness and a distinct chamomile tea/white flower character. Here, the 2022 Art Series Chardonnay is showing both of those characters, neatly wedged into the authoritative profile of Leeuwin Art Series Chardonnay. Today, for perhaps the first time ever in seeing these wines on release, I note that the oak is a key player in the drinking experience - as ever, seamlessly matched to the fruit and an important part of the wine's style and evident here today. There are toasted nuts, yellow fruits, exotic spices and an open fan of acidity/phenolics through the finish. This 2022 will prove to be a powerful and statuesque player in the wider footprint of Art Series Chardonnays. It's one to collect, but for drinking in the short/immediate term, decanting is recommended.
2006
97 Points - James Halliday, The Weekend Australian
Bright and youthful colour; a complex array of nectarine, grapefruit and spice, particularly cinnamon, is offered on the bouquet; the palate exhibits understated power, with grilled nuts supporting the very generous, yet refined, level of stone fruit and oak; the finish is staggeringly long, fine and complex. The adoption (since '05) of screwcaps has brought a collective sigh of relief from its many admirers. Drink: 2011. Margaret River produces Australia's most complex chardonnays and this wine sits at the very top.
2010
98 Points - Andrew Caillard MW, The Vintage Journal
Medium pale colour. Intense grapefruit, pineapple, lemon curd aromas with light roasted hazelnut notes. Generous and creamy with fresh grapefruit, pineapple, nectarine fruits, fine lacy al dente textures, superb mid palate viscosity and underlying vanilla notes. Finishes al dente firm with plentiful stone fruit notes. A reference Margaret River Chardonnay showing extraordinary density, richness and torque, all elements beautifully balanced.
2014
Top 100 Australian Wines of 2017 &
20/20 points - Matthew Jukes
Art Series itself is just that – a work of art. lt is the most consistently excellent chardonnay in Australia and in 2014 this iconic wine is less forceful and domineering than in 2013 and there is already striking balance on display. With a perfect thread of acidity and freshness running the length of its spine, Art Series chardonnay is a wine with uncommon finesse and it underlines just how great the 2014 vintage was for Margaret River and its top white wines. 2014 Art Series chardonnay is my favorite release in a very long time and having given it 19.5s more regularly than I can count it is time for me to unleash a perfect 20/20 for this masterpiece. lt is not only the top scoring white wine of this report it is the top wine of all.
2019
Best Chardonnay & White Wine of the Year & 99 Points - Ray Jordan, WA Wine Review 2023
In many ways the most Burgundian of any of the Leeuwin releases, this will rank up there with the best to date. There's a waxy light mealy aroma which picks up nuances of limestone and spice with a trace of grapefruit. But it is the palate that really distinguishes it. There is an austerity with the minerally chalky feel that cuts through the fruit extending to a finish of extraordinary length. Precision and focus harness a wine of great power and poise before dry savoury edges lift the finish. Date: March 2022; Drink: 2024-2038.
Watch Erin Larkin and JJ talk all things Leeuwin Art Series Chardonnay here!