Leeuwin Estate
Leeuwin Estate is a Mattinson 10-Star Winery — Campbell Mattinson's highest honour.
Margaret River.
When the Wineark cellarage business released its [Wineark Most Collected Wines list of 2024], Leeuwin Estate Art Series Chardonnay 2021 was the most collected wine of that year. That a white wine could muscle into such traditional-red-wine collectable territory said it all about the standing of this great Australian wine, and the estate which produces it.
The case.
A few years ago I compiled a Top 100 Wineries list for Halliday Wine Companion and in this list I stated that to qualify, you must “roll out the gold with monotonous regularity”. Leeuwin Estate is best known for its Art Series Chardonnay, a single vineyard wine that is near-peerless for the regularity, over many decades, of its brilliance. The quality of this wine is so good, so often, and has been for so long, that it could easily become monotonous – if it wasn’t so stunning. Scores on The Winefront site are renowned for being a step harder, or lower, than at most other sources and yet the Winefront’s scores for Leeuwin Estate Art Series Chardonnay over the past ten releases are emphatic: 97, 95, 97, 97, 97, 96, 97, 93+, 96, 96. The only thing more remarkable than this run of scores is the fact that Leeuwin Estate Art Series Chardonnay has been turning out similar high-scoring hits since its 1981 release won “best chardonnay in the world” in Decanter Magazine – or, that is, for the best part of 45 years. As remarked in the [Australian Wines of Cultural Merit] list, Leeuwin’s Art Series Chardonnay “gave Australian white wine its first true global icon.”
Leeuwin’s Prelude chardonnay, too, at far more modest pricing, is regularly excellent. Its Art Series Cabernet Sauvignon and Art Series Shiraz have their share of high points. These wines are over-shadowed by the Art Series Chardonnay but then, almost any wine would be.
The wines that carry the case.
Leeuwin Art Series Chardonnay 2017 (Margaret River). “The art of Margaret River chardonnay. This is it. You don’t just drink a wine like this, you set it in your mind as a benchmark.”
Leeuwin Art Series Chardonnay 2020 (Margaret River). “This is a peach of a wine. One sip and wow, you’re into its wonderful world.”
Leeuwin Art Series Chardonnay 2023 (Margaret River). “It’s a classic movie, in the form of a wine, in a glass. If you buy some you’ll have a great wine in your cellar.”
The verdict.
A champion of the Margaret River. Then, now, and (likely) forever.
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Entry edited July 2026.
