Winemaker Notes
The nose shows the influence of the coolest growing season experienced in Margaret River with the usually dominate ripe stone fruit taking a backseat to the more refined grapefruit, granny smith apples and almonds.
The palate shows incredible restraint with a youthful freshness of grapefruit and citrus characteristics.
The wine is astonishingly focused across the palate with a lingering finish of citrus blossom, the wine evolves with a fine line of acid to help provide the remarkable length of flavour that persists in the mouth minutes after drinking.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Leeuwin’s Art Series Chardonnay is seemingly an annual candidate for Chardonnay of the Year. The light gold–colored 2006 Art Series Chardonnay spent 11 months in 100% new French oak. Currently the aromatics are slightly muted and the wine is tightly wound. It exhibits ample white and tropical fruit aromas, leading to an intensely concentrated, ripe, well-balanced Chardonnay that coats the mouth. This lengthy effort needs several years to blossom after which it will drink well for 10-15 years. I say this with confidence after a small vertical tasting going back to 1987 in which none of the wines showed the deleterious effects of age. Leeuwin Estate is one of the benchmark wineries of Western Australia. Both reds and whites exhibit cool climate character and European elegance.
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Wine & Spirits
It's difficult to see past the full oak treatment of this wine and the initial hit of sulfur. Leave it for an hour or two in a decanter and the subtleties of the fruit begin to show, hinting at lilacs and something fresh and green to balance the broad, toasty richness. The flavors are long, and the wine needs several years in the cellar to feed on its oak. But Art Series has a track record of aging well, and this should be worth the wait.
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.