ASC had Denis Horgan of Leeuwin Estate, the famous Margaret River producer, in town. Journalists met at the Blu Lobster restaurant in Beijing’s other Shangri-La hotel. Leeuwin Estate has three quality levels or categories: the Siblings range is entry level, the Prelude Vineyards is the mid-range and the Art Series wines are the well-known highest quality tier.
Horgan’s first visit to China was in 1976 and he has been returning repeatedly, particularly in the last seven years when his wines have been available in mainland China. Leeuwin Estate itself was set up in 1973, when a nursery was first planted. Horgan had cottoned on to wine following the interest of Robert Mondavi who had inquired about land Horgan owned in the Margaret River. Mondavi even went to Horgan’s lawyer (who dutifully informed Horgan). Mondavi and Horgan then met over a bottle and Mondavi became a kind of ‘mentor’, as Horgan happily confesses. In 1974 the first vines were planted and the estate now operates some 370 acres. This is the kind of maximum size at which Horgan is happy to maintain quantity and, moreover, quality.
Horgan pointed out that it was always the mission of Leeuwin Estate to think internationally and to produce consistently excellent wines that would appeal to an international audience. He summed up this mission succinctly: ‘To produce wines that rank among the best in the world’. Back in the mid-1970s Western Australia was not just isolated geographically: Leeuwin Estate was the pioneer in wine production in the region as well as being at the forefront of developing wine-and-food matching (hence the early creation of its restaurant).
The Art Series wines – inspired in part by the example of Château Mouton-Rothschild with its labels created by famous artists – began with the commissioning of local artists; and, in some cases, the collaboration has since made the names of various Australian artists. The first Art Series wine was the 1980 Chardonnay. Since that time, Horgan has also attracted musicians and other artists to the estate: open-air concerts are a frequent feature and some 200,000 people now visit the winery each year.
Thankfully, as wine quality is so high, no one can claim that the estate’s wider cultural activities are there to fill a gap. Quality is paramount and Horgan explained how, originally, his Shiraz vines were planted in the wrong soils – where the Sauvignon Blanc is now planted – describing how he replanted his Shiraz vineyards in the right soil with the right kind of exposure for the style of wine he has always wanted to make.
We then tasted the current Art Series releases (some wines are held back and aged before being released to the market):
2006 Leeuwin Estate Art Series Sauvignon Blanc
Appearance: medium green colour.
Nose: lovely mineral nose with ripe but not too aromatic fruit: gooseberry, guava predominant.
Palate: very good acidity, lovely fruit with more mineral notes and impressive length.
Conclusion: lovely Sauvignon Blanc with the kind of ripeness they would envy in Sancerre but without the overblown characters of some heavier New World Sauvignons. Elegant.
Rating: 18/20
2004 Leeuwin Estate Art Series Riesling
Appearance: medium green-gold.
Nose: lime fruit, floral, lots of minerality (stony notes).
Palate: restrained lime fruit, mineral and savoury flavours, excellent acidity and lovely length.
Conclusion: under screw-cap – in fact Horgan aims to convert to screw-caps for all of his wines in the future – and a lovely example of Australian Riesling in a more mineral and more floral style, perhaps, than most Australian Rieslings, particularly generic wines from the Clare and Eden Valleys. No kerosene aromas on this Riesling yet.
Rating: 18.5/20
2003 Leeuwin Estate Art Series Chardonnay
Appearance: Medium to deepish gold.
Nose: ‘full-on’, developed nose with butter aromas, restrained pineapple fruit, balanced non-intrusive oak.
Palate: good acidity here, minerality, powerful but still restrained pineapple fruit. Excellent length.
Conclusion: interestingly, the acidic grip here is due to the fact that the wine does not go through malolactic fermentation. It receives some 11 months in 100% new French oak, but there is such fruit ripeness that the oak does not really stand out – there’s also obviously been some ageing here. The wine is also aged for a further two years before it leaves Leeuwin Estate; so it is already showing some development, although will age well for some time to come. Lovely to drink now, however! I noted it tasted a bit like a richer and riper version of a Meursault because there was some fatness and plush fruit but with good acidity and impressive minerality.
Rating: 18.5/20
2004 Leeuwin Estate Art Series Shiraz
Appearance: dark purple, clear rim.
Nose: immediate pepper, black cherry and blueberry nose with slight tea-tree oil (sometimes a quality of high-end Australian Shiraz), good oak.
Palate: fantastic palate, elegant; very good acidity, beautiful medium chewy tannins, very integrated oak, wonderful fruit flavours with more of the pepper quality that survives in Syrah/Shiraz only in ‘cooler’ climates (it tends to dissipate when the grape experiences warmer conditions). Very good length.
Conclusion: very, very good cool climate Shiraz. Horgan does not actually put his range into wine shows probably for fear that his elegant and sophisticated wines will not stand out alongside hefty Australian Shirazes or Cabernets or any other grapes made in warmer, bigger styles.
Rating: 19/20
2002 Leeuwin Estate Art Series Cabernet Sauvignon
Appearance: black colour with an orange rim.
Nose: crushed blackcurrant, cedar, pine, French oak, still quite youthful.
Palate: excellent acidity, ripe lovely tannins, strong fruit with more cedar and pine aromas. None of the leathery notes of aged Cabernet, but certainly showing some development if still young.
Conclusion: obviously very high quality. Not quite as exciting as the Shiraz, in my book, but a lot of people will like this wine. It is 85% Cabernet Sauvignon with probably either Merlot and/or Cabernet Franc thrown in to fill out the hole in the middle palate Cabernet Sauvignon usually brings.
Rating: 18.5/20
Horgan’s first visit to China was in 1976 and he has been returning repeatedly, particularly in the last seven years when his wines have been available in mainland China. Leeuwin Estate itself was set up in 1973, when a nursery was first planted. Horgan had cottoned on to wine following the interest of Robert Mondavi who had inquired about land Horgan owned in the Margaret River. Mondavi even went to Horgan’s lawyer (who dutifully informed Horgan). Mondavi and Horgan then met over a bottle and Mondavi became a kind of ‘mentor’, as Horgan happily confesses. In 1974 the first vines were planted and the estate now operates some 370 acres. This is the kind of maximum size at which Horgan is happy to maintain quantity and, moreover, quality.
Horgan pointed out that it was always the mission of Leeuwin Estate to think internationally and to produce consistently excellent wines that would appeal to an international audience. He summed up this mission succinctly: ‘To produce wines that rank among the best in the world’. Back in the mid-1970s Western Australia was not just isolated geographically: Leeuwin Estate was the pioneer in wine production in the region as well as being at the forefront of developing wine-and-food matching (hence the early creation of its restaurant).
The Art Series wines – inspired in part by the example of Château Mouton-Rothschild with its labels created by famous artists – began with the commissioning of local artists; and, in some cases, the collaboration has since made the names of various Australian artists. The first Art Series wine was the 1980 Chardonnay. Since that time, Horgan has also attracted musicians and other artists to the estate: open-air concerts are a frequent feature and some 200,000 people now visit the winery each year.
Thankfully, as wine quality is so high, no one can claim that the estate’s wider cultural activities are there to fill a gap. Quality is paramount and Horgan explained how, originally, his Shiraz vines were planted in the wrong soils – where the Sauvignon Blanc is now planted – describing how he replanted his Shiraz vineyards in the right soil with the right kind of exposure for the style of wine he has always wanted to make.
We then tasted the current Art Series releases (some wines are held back and aged before being released to the market):
2006 Leeuwin Estate Art Series Sauvignon Blanc
Appearance: medium green colour.
Nose: lovely mineral nose with ripe but not too aromatic fruit: gooseberry, guava predominant.
Palate: very good acidity, lovely fruit with more mineral notes and impressive length.
Conclusion: lovely Sauvignon Blanc with the kind of ripeness they would envy in Sancerre but without the overblown characters of some heavier New World Sauvignons. Elegant.
Rating: 18/20
2004 Leeuwin Estate Art Series Riesling
Appearance: medium green-gold.
Nose: lime fruit, floral, lots of minerality (stony notes).
Palate: restrained lime fruit, mineral and savoury flavours, excellent acidity and lovely length.
Conclusion: under screw-cap – in fact Horgan aims to convert to screw-caps for all of his wines in the future – and a lovely example of Australian Riesling in a more mineral and more floral style, perhaps, than most Australian Rieslings, particularly generic wines from the Clare and Eden Valleys. No kerosene aromas on this Riesling yet.
Rating: 18.5/20
2003 Leeuwin Estate Art Series Chardonnay
Appearance: Medium to deepish gold.
Nose: ‘full-on’, developed nose with butter aromas, restrained pineapple fruit, balanced non-intrusive oak.
Palate: good acidity here, minerality, powerful but still restrained pineapple fruit. Excellent length.
Conclusion: interestingly, the acidic grip here is due to the fact that the wine does not go through malolactic fermentation. It receives some 11 months in 100% new French oak, but there is such fruit ripeness that the oak does not really stand out – there’s also obviously been some ageing here. The wine is also aged for a further two years before it leaves Leeuwin Estate; so it is already showing some development, although will age well for some time to come. Lovely to drink now, however! I noted it tasted a bit like a richer and riper version of a Meursault because there was some fatness and plush fruit but with good acidity and impressive minerality.
Rating: 18.5/20
2004 Leeuwin Estate Art Series Shiraz
Appearance: dark purple, clear rim.
Nose: immediate pepper, black cherry and blueberry nose with slight tea-tree oil (sometimes a quality of high-end Australian Shiraz), good oak.
Palate: fantastic palate, elegant; very good acidity, beautiful medium chewy tannins, very integrated oak, wonderful fruit flavours with more of the pepper quality that survives in Syrah/Shiraz only in ‘cooler’ climates (it tends to dissipate when the grape experiences warmer conditions). Very good length.
Conclusion: very, very good cool climate Shiraz. Horgan does not actually put his range into wine shows probably for fear that his elegant and sophisticated wines will not stand out alongside hefty Australian Shirazes or Cabernets or any other grapes made in warmer, bigger styles.
Rating: 19/20
2002 Leeuwin Estate Art Series Cabernet Sauvignon
Appearance: black colour with an orange rim.
Nose: crushed blackcurrant, cedar, pine, French oak, still quite youthful.
Palate: excellent acidity, ripe lovely tannins, strong fruit with more cedar and pine aromas. None of the leathery notes of aged Cabernet, but certainly showing some development if still young.
Conclusion: obviously very high quality. Not quite as exciting as the Shiraz, in my book, but a lot of people will like this wine. It is 85% Cabernet Sauvignon with probably either Merlot and/or Cabernet Franc thrown in to fill out the hole in the middle palate Cabernet Sauvignon usually brings.
Rating: 18.5/20
Labels: 2002, 2003, 2004, 2006, ASC, Australia, Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Featured Tastings, Leeuwin Estate, Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc, Shiraz, Western Australia
posted by Wine Dragon
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