This is a wonderful wine of intensity, richness and focus. It has explosive white peach and green melon fruits tinged with spice. There’s great shape in the mouth, with a concentrated core. It has a suggestion of smoky mineral and whip of lemon-like acidity carrying the long finish.
Jeremy there are few wines I have sampled that have the consistency of Leeuwin Chardonnays. Great every vintage!
Remarkably consistent, John.
These wines are soo stinking good. We did one of those massive WS tastings with some first growths and great brunellos, etc. Whole those were outstanding… the most memorable wine was this (different vintage). Been a consistent buyer since.
Jeremy, great note! Thanks. I’ll look out for this wine.
Seeing as though you have hot and cold Grand Cru white Burgundy plumbed into your home, how would you compare this wine (all vintages) with top WB?
Love they are under screw cap. Jeremy what vintage did that start with?
James, I consider it as Australia’s Batard. Rich and powerful and built to age. It is more open-knit than Grand Cru Burgundy tends to be on release and the flavour profile doesn’t seem to have quite as much minerality, but the wine stacks up in quality terms.
John, I can’t recall exactly, perhaps around 2004/2005?
Thanks Jeremy. I’d be very interested to get your take on other NW Chardonnays and how they compare with WB.
Without meaning to sound sarcastic, what would the analogous cru be for Giaconda?
TIA,
Jonathan
Jonathan, I haven’t drunk a lot of recent Giaconda. The mid '90’s wines however would be Australia’s Chevalier-Montrachet. I put the 1993 in a bracket of Chevalier a few years ago and it well and truly held its own.
James, I like a reductive style of Aussie Chardonnay and very much enjoy Holyman, Vasse Felix Heytesbury and the Penfolds 16A, 17A etc. These all stack up well against quality WB.
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Seems like 2004 was when they started using screw caps in their market.
https://www.danmurphys.com.au/product/DM_333796/leeuwin-estate-art-series-chardonnay-2004
But not for us:
https://m.klwines.com/p/i?i=1031386
By 2005 it seems that screw caps became standard world wide:
https://m.klwines.com/p/i?i=1039282
Interestingly, of the 31 defective bottle TNs on CT only one is post 2004.
I’ll start a new thread on this topic.
Here is the new thread:
Opened the 2005 over the holidays…to be more accurate my MIL opened it, thinking it was Sonoma Cutrer…utterly delicious, rich, yet balanced with a nice beam of acidity.
Who distributes Leeuwin Estate in US or a good retailer who can ship to Seattle? Any recommendations?
I’ve had a few from last bottle offers recent and enjoyed them.
Kris, was it sealed with a screw cap?
Yes, Stelvin. Still have 98, 02, 03 in cork.
Nicholas, i believe you can buy from what i think is the authorised distributor
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Kris. Thanks. That stacks up with my assumptions about Leeuwin switching to screw caps aroundc2004-2005.
Good luck with the dreaded pox. ![[beg.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/c/c8f47f94d6cf4d2028b6fb3e1d25ac809b9ab827.gif "beg"){kind=small}
Been selling Leeuwin in WA since 2001, our first stelvin vintage was 2005, which buyers weren’t thrilled with for a $55 MR Chard as stelvin wasn’t widely accepted here yet. We switched back to cork one year, 2007, I believe, as they were bottling both types depending on market. Never had a poxed one, although 1998 may be a bit over the hill. Will open and see!
Dang! They will barely have slapped the Stelvins onto these puppies yet! I picture Jeremy standing at the end of the bottling line and grabbing one of the first bottles to try each year. You know, just in case it’s slightly more or slightly less brilliant than usual 
! Remarkably consistent.
FWIW, I had a perfectly sound (though mature) 1998 back half of last year.