Product Review
Leeuwin's top Chardonnay is set for the long haul. Currently fairly tightly wound, melon, marzipan and flint notes peek through the cracks. There's a lovely crunch of acidity, textural weight and depth on the medium-weight palate, brightened by a tang of citrus and stone fruit. Elegant with a saline finish, this should age with grace for another decade (2032) or more.
#57 Enthusiast 100 2022
Its adaptability to different soils and climates, and malleability in the wine room make Chardonnay one of the most popular and ubiquitous grapes. Responsible for some of the world’s most thrilling white wines wines including Champagne, it is in its homeland of Burgundy with villages such as Chablis, Meursault and Puligny-Montrachet that producers craft arguably some of the world’s finest wines. Chardonnay is also synonymous with California, where it can display riper, tropical fruit flavors, rather than the more restrained stone fruit and steely, mineral qualities often associated with its Old World and cool climate counterparts. While there are terrific fresh and vibrant Chardonnays made solely using stainless steel, the grape also knits terrifically well with oak, lending greater depth and weight in the form of a nutty, toasty and somtimes buttery component.
Margaret River is a highly respected wine region in the southwestern corner of Western Australia. Famous for having a more "European" wine style than its counterparts across the country, Margaret River has made its name through its unusually refined Cabernet Sauvignon (often blended with Merlot), gamey Shiraz, intensely citrusy Chardonnay, and refreshingly grassy "SSB'" blends of Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon.
White wine is a wine whose color can be pale-yellow, yellow-green, and yellow-gold colored. The wine is produced from a variety of grape varieties. The flavor and color comes from the juice of the grape and sometimes the skin of the grape as well. Interestingly, not all white wine comes from white grapes. Some select red grapes are used as in Champagne.
