Leeuwin Estate Art Series Shiraz Margaret River 2019

Description

Leeuwin Estate, one of the founding wineries of the now famous Margaret River district of Western Australia was established in 1973 with its mission statement to: "Produce wines that rank with the best in the world through the pursuit of excellence". In 1972, legendary Napa Valley winemaker, Robert Mondavi, first identified the future site of the Leeuwin vineyard as being ideal for the production of premium wine and provided early mentorship to owners, Denis and Tricia Horgan in the establishment of Leeuwin Estate. The first vines were planted by hand over a five-year period from 1973. Featuring state-of-the-art facilities, the winery building was opened in 1978, celebrating with a trial vintage. Leeuwin enjoyed its first commercial vintage in 1979 and was thrust into the international spotlight when Decanter Magazine gave its highest recommendation to the 1980 "Art Series" Chardonnay in an international blind tasting.

Dense, dark and intense nose, rich with blueberries, mulberries and plums. Sweet perfume lift provided by violets and five spice. Further complexing notes of black pepper, camphor, mushroom and gaminess increase the bandwidth on the nose.

Shiraz is on the move in Margaret River as evidenced by this delightful release from the 2019 Art Series. It offers up sensational aromas of mulberry, blackberry, clove and white pepper with some stalky notes providing a tantalising start. There is plenty of fleshy fruit flavour as well as jube and fruits pastilles with a dusting of toasted cloves. A supple finish only adds to the immediate drinkability as does fine length. 91pts, Vinous