2016 Leeuwin Estate ‘Art Series’ Chardonnay

Wine Spectator Top 100 Wines of 2019
James Halliday Top 100 Wines of 2019

100 Points - Andrew Caillard MW, The Vintage Journal
Pale colour. Fresh flinty, lemon curd, bitter lemon, grapefruit aromas with yeasty, vanilla, roasted hazelnut. Generous ripe peach, nectarine, grapefruit, pear flavours, fine silky textures, superb mid palate creaminess and integrated mineral acidity. Finishes al dente with crunchy nectarine fruits and underlying savoury notes. Lovely extract, volume and persistency. A racehorse. Drink: Now-2036.

99+ Points - Ray Jordan, The West Weekend
For me, the 2016 Leeuwin is the closest thing, stylistically, to Burgundy - Grand Cru Burgundy - I have seen in an Australian chardonnay. The combination of power, intensity, palate length and precision stamps it as something special. A little element of Puligny, Chassagne, with more than a decent hit of Margaret River. Deciding to give it 99+ wasn't taken lightly. I was pretty sure after the first taste a few weeks ago, surer after sharing a bottle with friends and finally convinced after a third assessment, when I tasted it several times over 24 hours to see how it opened up

99 Points - James Halliday, Halliday Wine Companion 2021
"The perfumed perfection of the bouquet and the wonders of the palate, with its ever-shifting mosaic of white stone fruit, rock melon, grapefruit, Granny Smith apple and custard apple reign supreme. Oak? Yes, it's there, although subtle. Acidity? Yes, the giver of life now and into the future. Drink by 2046.

99 Points - Winsor Dobbin 
The Art Series range represents Leeuwin's most elegant and cellar-worthy wines from each vintage, and while I have no doubt this will cellar well, it will call for great willpower to not drink it right now because it is magnificent in its youth. With striking artwork from Kim Maple, entitled Influence, the wine lives up to to its billing as an Australian classic. It is a chardonnay of poise and precision, at once delicate and at the same time assertive it has the core strength of a ballerina. With layers of flavour including flintiness, nuts, Asian spices and bright, tight fruit on the grapefruit/ Packham pear side in of the spectrum this is downright delicious. This one merits 99/100.