- Margaret River, WA - $80-$110
- Screwcap
- 14.5%alc
Here's Australia's most iconic white wine, which I previously reviewed in February this year. But after having a seafood lunch at Leeuwin Estate's beautiful restaurant what was I supposed to drink? The Sparkling Brut? Surely not! Quite simply the 2006 Art Series Chardonnay is brilliant. Some critics have called it the best Art Series ever.
Clear-yellow in the glass, Leeuwin Estate's 2006 Art Series unfolds to an elegant yet generously ripened nose, displaying layers of quince, grapefruit and nectarine aromas with a restrained influence of butter/vanilla oak, cashew nuts and a trace of mineral. Incredibly textured in a full, smooth, creamy and well-weighted style, its ripe fruit flavours of banana, passionfruit and white stonefruits merge seamlessly with an extract of fresh cedar/vanilla oak into a delightfully persistent, very long finish framed by vibrant, polished, fluffy acids and lingering fruit. There's a faint candied aspect to its fruit core emanating from its higher alcohol and opulent ripeness, but it contains more than enough texture, depth, balance and length to handle it.
ü+ Cut from a different mould than many refined, elegant and tight modern Australian chardonnays; the hedonistic 2006 Art Series is another exemplary drop, with a near perfect interplay of deeply flavoured fruit and immaculate oak. It further underlines its status as Australia's most consistently outstanding wine (red or white). Drink to 2018.
95 points
Bang on. What an incredible Australian wine!
ReplyDeleteChris,
ReplyDeleteThough our tasting notes are different in terms of adjectives, I can see we had the same wine. Showy and dressed to turned heads. . . I will have to open another bottle and also some of the older ones I have stashed away, though I can feel myself drifting away from this style of wine.
Hey Edward,
ReplyDeleteHad a glass of this last tuesday (19 Jan) at a degustation and was a lot less impressed than my first two encounters. There seemed to be an awful lot of ripe, sweet fruit coming forth and it truly was a bit 'loose'.
Maybe all the hype's got to me?
Still, it made the 08 Stonier which sat next to it look particularly average.
Cheers,
Chris P