Winemaker Notes
The palate displays the mouth filling and intense flavors of fresh ripe pears which is full bodied and incredibly rich, intermingling with delicious stone fruit flavors and nectarine. The middle palate shows richness from both the fruit and the lees stirring, with a lingering fresh citrus finish. The new French oak complements the fruit, providing a wonderful balance of warm toasty flavors on the finish.
The structure of this wine highlights both the power of a typical multi-layered Leeuwin Estate Art Series Chardonnay with an underlying elegance.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
Round, generous and amazingly fresh, with a juicy hint of grapefruit playing against spicy pear, green guava and mint aromas and flavors that expand and persist onto the long, expressive finish. This just doesn't quit, remaining exquisitely balanced. Drink now through 2017.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Perhaps just starting to show its age, the 2005 Art Series Chardonnay is a smoky, toasty beauty, overflowing with grilled peaches and almost meaty, mocha notes. Full-bodied, fleshy and opulent, it's a terrific example of unabashedly New World Chardonnay. Drink it up over the next several years.
One of the most popular and versatile white wine grapes, Chardonnay offers a wide range of flavors and styles depending on where it is grown and how it is made. While it tends to flourish in most environments, Chardonnay from its Burgundian homeland produces some of the most remarkable and longest lived examples. California produces both oaky, buttery styles and leaner, European-inspired wines. Somm Secret—The Burgundian subregion of Chablis, while typically using older oak barrels, produces a bright style similar to the unoaked style. Anyone who doesn't like oaky Chardonnay would likely enjoy Chablis.
Home to some of Australia’s most elegant and long-lived red and white wines, Margaret River is situated in the farthest reaches of Western Australia. Relatively warm and dry, the region is cooled by breezes from the Indian Ocean. Margaret River takes some inspiration from Bordeaux, producing top-quality Cabernet Sauvignons and Bordeaux Blends with firm structure, mouthwatering acidity, balanced alcohol and notes of herbs and spice. For white wines, refreshing blends of Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon as well as complex, age-worthy Chardonnays are regional specialties.