2023 Leeuwin Art Series Chardonnay
A great year for a great Australian icon
I see Art Series Chardonnay as pretty much the pinnacle of Australian Chardonnay
Simon Larkin MW, Atlas Fine Wines
2023 Leeuwin Estate Art Series Chardonnay
£360 per 6 bottle case in bond
I must confess to having something of a soft spot for top Western Australian Chardonnay. And among the great names of Margaret River, Leeuwin Estate Art Series Chardonnay is a wine I have admired for a considerable time. In great vintages, I find it almost dumbfounding. There can be extraordinary intensity, yet somehow without weight; tremendous concentration of fruit, but nothing cumbersome or exaggerated. The best examples possess that rare combination of scale, purity and freshness that makes it very difficult to put the glass down.
The story of Leeuwin Estate goes back to Denis Horgan and Tricia Horgan and a cattle farm in Margaret River. An important early influence came from Napa legend Robert Mondavi, who identified the property as having the potential for premium wine production and provided the Horgans with guidance as they established the estate. Leeuwin Estate subsequently became one of the founding wineries of Margaret River. Today, Art Series Chardonnay occupies an extraordinary position in Australian wine.
In the latest, eighth edition of the Langtons Classification of Australian Wine, it sits in the small ‘1st Classified’ category, the highest level of the classification. Langtons describes this tier as comprising the most highly prized Australian fine wines. And this is an important distinction. Langtons isn't simply another critic's league table. Its classification is based on the secondary market and reflects demand and performance at auction, with consistency, quality, clearance, and tradability among its criteria. In other words, it provides an insight not simply into what critics think, but into how Australia's fine-wine collectors have valued these wines over time. That makes the position of Art Series Chardonnay particularly significant.
To my mind, its standing is entirely justified. I don't think comparisons with white Burgundy are particularly helpful here. Stylistically, they are very different propositions. Rather, I see Art Series Chardonnay as pretty much the pinnacle of Australian Chardonnay, a wine that has forged its own identity over decades and become one of the benchmarks by which the country's finest Chardonnays can be judged. And that identity is very much Margaret River. Central to the wine is the famous Block 20 vineyard, planted in 1976, with its Gingin clone, which has become so closely associated with Margaret River Chardonnay. In 2026 those vines reached their fiftieth year. There is also an interesting tension in the winemaking. The Art Series Chardonnay is barrel-fermented in new French oak and matured in barrel, with bâtonnage employed to build texture and complexity, yet malolactic fermentation is avoided. The intention is to preserve the pristine character of the Chardonnay fruit.
And that brings me to the 2023. This is a seriously impressive Leeuwin. There is tremendous intensity here, but absolutely nothing heavy about it. It is packed with those grilled golden-grapefruit characters, then stone fruit across the palate and more complex notes of dried citrus peel, with just a background suggestion of toast. I have never thought of Art Series Chardonnay as a particularly leesy style. What impresses me here is the sheer abundance, juiciness, and purity of the fruit. There is weight without heaviness and richness without any loss of energy. Perhaps most intriguingly, the 2023 seems unusually expressive already. Art Series Chardonnay can normally take a little time before it really shows its colours, whereas this feels as though it could prove almost irresistible in its youth while simultaneously possessing a very broad drinking window. And I have little doubt about its ability to age incredibly well. My God, it is good.
Erin Larkin arrives at much the same conclusion:
2023 Leeuwin Estate, Art Series Chardonnay
£360 per 6 bottle case in bond
98 points, Erin Larkin, robertparker.com, August 2026
The 2023 Art Series Chardonnay shows the oak more clearly than some other vintages in the tasting lineup, though I attribute that to the adherence of the estate to the 100% new French oak élevage regardless of the conditions, coupled with the cooler, more benign conditions of the 2023 season, which, by the way, was sensational. The wine leads with white peach, cashews, fennel seeds, preserved lemon and brine, while the palate shows staining intensity from the fruit. There is a sensational display of the Gingin clone, powered by a shimmering exhaust of acidity and shaped by firm phenolics. This is excellent. 2026-2053
I particularly like Erin Larkin's reference to shimmering acidity. It gets to the heart of the wine. There is plenty of material here, and plenty of flavour, but it is the acidity and phenolic structure that keep everything moving. There is sometimes a temptation with great Australian Chardonnay to validate them by reaching for comparisons elsewhere. I don't think that is necessary with Leeuwin Art Series Chardonnay. It has been doing this for long enough, and at a sufficiently high level, to have established an identity entirely of its own.
This is one of the great Australian Chardonnays, full stop. And in 2023, it is in quite extraordinary form.
Please let us know of your interest.
Simon
simon.larkin@atlasfinewines.com