Winemaker Notes
The palate shows fresh and vibrant pears, tangy grapefruit and peaches, with the balanced citrus acid giving the wine a delicious elegance and youthfulness. An excellent vintage for Leeuwin Estate Chardonnay, this wine will lend itself to cellaring for a number of years.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2006 Chardonnay Prelude Vineyard was barrel-fermented and aged in one-third new French oak. Medium straw-colored, it offers up an alluring bouquet of buttered toast, spiced apple, and tropical notes. Crisp and refreshing on the palate, it has superior depth, ripe flavors of pineapple and mango, and a lengthy, fruit-filled finish. Drink it over the next four 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.