TN: 2016 Leeuwin Estate Chardonnay Art Series

WINE TALK
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  • 2016 Leeuwin Estate Chardonnay Art Series - Australia, Western Australia, South West Australia, Margaret River (11/30/2019)
    There’s a touch of smoky mineral and a wonderful, crystalline fruit quality to this wine. It has some sappy, white peach, green melon, fig and intense citrus. It is rich and powerful, yet so precise and clear. Length is superb. this is Australia’s answer to Batard.

Posted from CellarTracker

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Still have some 01 mags…love this wine! Crossed fingers no ox. All screw cap now right?

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All screwcap now.

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Jeremy, nice note.

What do you think of the 2015 vintage?

If Leeuwin is Australia’s Batard, what would you say Giaconda is?

Cheers! [cheers.gif]

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One of the most consistent wines on the planet. Will have to seek out the 16.

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The '15 is very good James. Perhaps not as fine or precise as this '16.

Gicaonda is the Chevalier, or at least it was in the 90’s. I served a '93 a couple of years ago in a blind line-up of very good Chevalier that well and truly held its own.

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Thanks, Jeremy.

I tried both and thought the '15 had amazing depth and concentration. Haven’t had them side by side, though.

I usually find Giaconda more tightly coiled and, often, marked by oak, needing many years to show its best.

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Glad to see this performance, Jeremy. Last one I had was the 2013, tried last year:

"2013 Leeuwin Estates Art Series Chard

I debated and brought this because I wasn’t sure how much white we’d have and I was relatively sure very few people had had this—I was right in that only Heather from the group last night had tried it before besides me…and it’s been quite a while since I had a Leeuwin. I did slow-ox this the night before and it was quite unremarkable when opened. The slow-ox did it a world of good. Tonight, real perfume aromatics with hints of peach and golden delicious apple. To taste, there’s a phenolic element but it’s long and delivers plenty of verve with coiled apple flavor. With the escargots, it teases out a little buttercream and butterscotch. Still, this is not the stern, super-structured statuesque chard I remember. Thinking about recent Moss Wood bottles, I wondered aloud whether there’s been some climactic change down there."

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I tend to find the Giaconda consistently more exotically flavoured with age. An '05 Giaconda over the last couple of nights was perhaps more like a Criots, whereas a '99 Leeuwin I served blind to knowledgable folk a couple of months ago had two of them in Chevalier and one in Meursault :slight_smile:. In my view, the Leeuwin consitently ages far better than the Giaconda.

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I’d had some of this (Leewin Art Series) back in the '90s and maybe even early '00s. And then forgot about them. This thread got me to think about them again. I bought some '16 and got around to trying last night. Wow that’s good stuff. The flintyness and overall aromatics reminded me of some of the better Peter Michael bottlings at maybe 1/2 to 2/3 the price. I’d like to do this blind vs some Burg high end 1ers and maybe even GCs. Think it could hold it’s own vs Leflaive, Coche D, Roulot? I’d like to give it a shot. Gonna buy more vintages and add this into our chardonnay rotation…

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Peter, IMHO it holds its own (once mature!) against all but the very best GCs.

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Great note, this is an Aussie wine I like!