Art Series Margaret River Chardonnay

Typical nose of an Art Series Chardonnay with that dried pear character. On the medium weight palate a nice combination of ripe grapefruit and under ripe yellow peach. Medium minus acid. One can’t help but love this Chardonnay. A wonderful terroir, the Gin Gin clone, great winemaking, and an excellent vintage - ticks all the boxes. At its peak but enough acid for a few more years if you wish. That was my last bottle of the 2011.

At my 2015 Chardonnay Challenge of 6 wines. Very close consensus scores put this wine at 4th. 2015 was a warm year but this carried enough acid to easily last 10 years. Peaches and Nectarines.

Another Aussie stunner cutting through the mediocrity in the marketplace today. In our minds, this wine needs at least 4 years of bottle age to reveal its true colors, then look out.
Reminds us of a French GC with piercing focus, presence and linearity. Top shelf stuff.

Sucked as much as my picture. How does a 17’ under screw cap manage to taste like petrol and new oak. How horrendous must storage and transport have been to achieve this. Sigh.

Unscrewed and poured; no formal notes. These friggen Chardonnays from Margaret River. I’ve been blinded on them too many times to count and I never call it right. Instead, I always seem to call a high acid grape like Riesling of Sauvignon Blanc. The fruit is sometimes tropical, always with citrus and sometimes is shows green apple and always with awesome minerals. Acid is squarely in the high category. They are lovely wines that just seem to throw me for a loop. If Chablis, the Mosel and Sancerre had a love child. Drink now and through 2036 easy. A fabulous pairing with lamb massaman, larb and papaya salad. How can they hide the 100% new French oak so well?!

Not ready for prime-time just yet, but that didn’t prevent us from committing the felony.
Pale straw color in the glass links up with lemon curd and a hint of gooseberries. Robust acidity frames this up nicely. Finishes taught and with urgency. Drinking the best wines in the world can be a little like fumbling around in the dark. But with this, I can see in the dark.

Brief notes. First of 6 had with 500 grams of Mooloolaba King Prawns for Easter Sunday lunch......a great match. The characteristic dried pear notes on nose and palate. Wonderful palate intensity and length with moderate acid. Very enjoyable.

In keeping with the Aussie theme from a recent Grange dinner (1997-2001, 1998 was the clear winner), this was brought as a starter.

With about 9yrs on it, this is the oldest Leeuwin Art Series Chardonnay I’ve had, and I’m impressed at the evolution. Slightly reductive (sweet smoke) upon opening, but it added great character. Color was a beautiful deep yellow (but not oxidized gold). Tropical (white peach, nectarine) but also honeyed cashews and honeysuckle aromatically. Great depth on the mid-palate with added tropical notes carried by faint oak but a distinct mineral driven finish. Drinking beautifully. Wish I had more.

Another great vintage in Margaret River - see previous notes. Ripe grapefruit notes on nose and palate. After some hours peaches and cream on nose and palate. A characteristic of the gin gin clone. Oak is totally integrated. Enough citric acid to last a year or so more but this is essentially at its wonderful peak. Art series Chardonnay is always impressive. Have the last one towards the end of next year. 97 points from HH.

My last bottle of the 2010 Art Series Chardonnay. See previous Delectable note. An excellent generously constructed Chardonnay. A few years on has lost a little vigour for little added complexity. My previous bottle was at its peak. This bottle was good but needed to be drunk. It would develop flabbiness in the future I feel. Still peaches and cream with M intensity and M- acidity.