Leeuwin Estate Art Series Cabernet Sauvignon 2022
- 95
- $102
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Putting aside its nervy infancy, this is a brilliant wine from a brilliant producer that expresses its origins now and will develop immense complexity over decades. It takes its time to unfurl beyond oak in the beginning, but when that beautiful fruit awakens and sinks into the wine, this becomes a gorgeous Cabernet of perfumed complexity. Cedar and vanilla pod notes mark the aromas first off before blackberry pastilles, blackcurrant juice, mulberry and blood plum. There’s lovely savouriness in support, too, with bay leaf, warm gravel, hazelnut, dark chocolate and graphite adding dimension as well as a nori-laced mineral note and flickers of black tea. Very good. The palate is at once powerful and elegant with a medium-bodied feel, again with oak taking the lead in the form of cedar wood and vanilla before a finespun and elegant piercing of fruit breaks through the core. Black cherry, blackcurrant, mulberry and blood plum again before dark chocolate and gravel in support. A stacked and grainy frame of graphite tannins coil it all up and funnel the wine into linear length with cooling acidity. An excellent Art Series Cabernet release where patience will reward.
Tom Kline is a wine writer, reviewer, presenter, and educator based in Victoria, Australia. He is the Australian correspondent for the internationally respected publications Jasper Morris Inside Burgundy and Jane Anson Inside Bordeaux, where he highlights the top tier of Australian wine for a global audience. Tom also writes for leading outlets including Decanter (UK), Wine Spectator (US), and Halliday Magazine, among others. An experienced wine show judge and WSET educator, he has authored several consumer-focused wine courses aimed at making wine more accessible and engaging. In 2023, Tom was awarded Best Published Feature Article or Wine Column at the prestigious Wine Communicator Awards, presented by Wine Communicators of Australia.
