2002 Art Series Chardonnay gives aromas of preserved ginger and mandarin peel with nuances of wet stones, brine and a pleasantly musky almost mushroom character. Crisp, a bit less rich and silken than the 2005, this has a long, chalky finish. Drink it now to 2015+. “Back in the 1970s Margaret River was dying – the wine business established it,” Leeuwin Estate’s Denis Horgan told me as we gazed over his impressive winery, restaurant and concert hall operation. “This area used to have one of the highest unemployment rates in the country previously.” Have a brief drive around Margaret River and its environs and you’ll soon know that the region’s lifeblood these days is wine and its heart is Horgan’s Leeuwin Estate, established in 1975. Never one to do things by half, Horgan’s continually high standards at Leeuwin maintains it as one of the region’s benchmarks. Since Bob Cartwrights’s retirement as Chief Winemaker, Paul Atwood, who is a bit of an institution himself having already made wine there for more than 13 years, has adeptly filled his shoes. Prelude Chardonnay is made just like the Art Series but is blended from a selection of cuvees for earlier drinking. It receives no indigenous ferments and no oxidative handling. The key difference is that there is more forward fruit in Prelude than the Art Series, which is of course designed to age. About 2/3 of the total Chardonnay blocks are fermented in 100% new oak, so that equates to around 40% new oak on the Prelude and it usually spends about 1 year in barrel. The Chardonnays don’t normally go through malo-lactic but for example Paul told me they did use 25% in 2006 because it was a cool vintage. The final difference is that Prelude uses some purchased fruit whereas Art Series is always 100% estate grown. Importer: Old Bridge Cellars, Napa, CA; www.oldbridgecellars.com

A wine of marvelous richness and unexpected subtlety, this has delicious pear, mineral, gooseberry and lime flavors in profusion, beautifully wrapped in a veil of spicy oak, persisting impressively on the long, long finish. Drink now through 2020. 500 cases imported.??–HS??Region: Australia / Western Australia / Margaret River Select to Add