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Museum Release Art Series Chardonnay

Museum Release Art Series Chardonnay

2017 Chardonnay, Margaret River, Western Australia

The purity on the nose is unmistakable; defined by a fruit spectrum of Japanese pear, Tahitian lime and Meyer lemon.

$203.00
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Awards

Light yellow, a very youthful colour. The bouquet has substantial oak as well as some tropical fruit, cashew nut and fluffy yeast aromas. The palate is very intense and vibrant, with nervy acidity and richness to match, the aftertaste lingering on and on. A power-packed wine that is compact and rightly-packaged, latent like an unexploded bomb! Intense and sustained grapefruit and lemon aftertaste. An impressive, high-impact chardonnay of great potential. The sheer power of the fruit is awesome.
98 points
Huon Hooke, therealreview.com.au, 20 March 2020
Sometimes you just have to lean back and marvel. The art of Margaret River chardonnay. This is it. You don’t just drink a wine like this, you set it in your mind as a benchmark. It’s a wine built on power, texture and length, centre-half forward, centre-half back and ruck, with actidity roving through and the fragrance cheering loud. That seduction up front, that pure fresh peach, that huge energetic push through the back half. Blumey Charlie the crushed fennel characters here are full on. It’s on the frisky side of luxury. It’s damn good.
97 points
Campbell Mattinson, The Winefront, March 2020
Such complexity and resolve make for a very attractive nose with peaches, grapefruit, cedary oak spice, gunflint and wet stones. The palate has a plush, smoothly resolved texture with a rich, creamy texture and all-encompassing, ripe stone-fruit flavors, ahead of a very long, smooth finish. Grilled-hazelnut and apricot-kernel flavors to close. Great to drink now, but certainly a decade of cellaring in the tank, too. Screw cap.
96 points
Nick Stock, JamesSuckling.com, March 2020
The long-standing flag bearer for “Margs” chardonnay, this wine from the cooler – and at times challenging – 2017 season, is absolutely one of the best ever released under the Art Series label. The bouquet really sets the scene for what’s to come with complex tightly-wound notes of white pear against a background of nectarine and lemon, with new French oak at the back fighting for attention. It would be easy to mistake this as serious white burgundy. It has real power and impact on entry, which flows to serious mid-palate intensity with those pear notes continuing across the wines perfect proportions. A wine of great power and vitality, the finale is oh-so lingering with echoes of almond, lime and lemon. A grand cru white burgundy quality at a fraction of the price, which could be cellared for 15-20+ years, especially in magnum.
Frank Wilden, Business Insider Australia, May 2020
This achieves another step up the quality ladder for Leeuwin Estate, seemingly impossible. There's been no change in the vinification, nor in the vineyard. The change is an increase in the intensity of the flavours, and hence their length and aftertaste. It's an extraordinary wine, among the greatest of Burgundy (and elsewhere in the world). Whatever you expect from its future development will be delivered.
99 points, Chardonnay Varietal Award Winner
James Halliday, 2021 Halliday Wine Companion
Opens rich a lush, with grilled pineapple, ripe pear and fleshy apricot flavors. Details of mineral, lime skin and Meyer lemon add a fresh thread of acidity and a sense of precision, finishing with a note of sesame seed.
Highly Recommended, 96 points
MaryAnn Worobiec
This felt fancy and impressive from the very first moment it hit the glass. Bright, limey, tight and finely wrought, power and structure in spades with incredible velocity and tension in the palate. It is a wine of pedigree and distinction. Delicious too; a rolling feast of fresh fruit, savoury notes, florals, oak and quiet minerality. Yes, thank you. Rolls Royce chardonnay.
Wine Number 3
WA Good Food Guide
November 2020

Details

  • RegionMargaret River, Western Australia
  • Vintage2017
  • TypeWhite Wine
  • VarietyChardonnay
  • Volume750ml
  • Alcohol Volume13.5%
  • PH

    3.12

  • Standard Drinks8
  • Acidity

    7.62 G/L

  • Maturation

    11 months

  • ClosureScrewCap
  • Bottling Date

    21 August 18 – 23 August 18

  • Vineyard Notes

    Winter of 2016 was characteristically wet, with August experiencing a recent rainfall record with 228 mm – resulting in a significantly higher than average annual rainfall total. Chardonnay was the first variety to burst in late August, followed by the Riesling and Cabernet through September. Spring was generally milder and experienced slightly more rainfall than average. Flowering in all varieties was delayed 10 days as compared to 2016, with this period generally sunny, resulting in excellent set across most varieties. Summer was mild with few hot days, and veraison occurred 3 weeks later than in 2016. Harvest commenced in the Riesling in the last week of February, followed by Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc in the first weeks of March.

    A later than usual, but nonetheless excellent vintage.

  • Winemaking

    Cool destemmed fruit with some skin contact. The juice was settled for 3 days, racked and inoculated with yeast. 100% of the juice was barrel fermented in new French oak barriques and the lees stirred regularly. After 11 months in barrels the various components were blended, fined, cold stabilized and bottled.

  • Tasting Notes

    The purity on the nose is unmistakable; defined by a fruit spectrum of Japanese pear, Tahitian lime and Meyer lemon. Floral notes combine with subtle spice, highlighted by frangipani, chamomile, cinnamon and cardamom. Delicate notes of cashew, almonds, sesame and graphite are threaded in the background.
    A clear expression of primary fruit unfolds into a delicate, contoured and layered mid-palate, neatly laced with a fine acid structure. Again, the hallmark fruits of pear and lime are present, with secondary notes of oyster shell, lightly toasted almonds and nutmeg. Presence, poise and enviable length combine in symmetry, creating an articulating line and dimension.