Leeuwin Estate Art Series Chardonnay 2020
Leeuwin Estate · Leeuwin Estate, Margaret River, Western Australia
The Art Series Chardonnay is Australia's most compelling argument that great Chardonnay needs nothing but time and patience. The 2020 vintage received 98 points from Wine Advocate and 97 from Halliday, James Suckling, and Wine Front.
Nose
Lemon curd and nashi pear open the conversation, followed by lime zest, vanilla pod, and tea leaf.
Palate
Precise and focused, with white peach and pear at the core, delicately woven texture through the mid-palate, and a juicy acidity.
Finish
Long, saline, and mineral-driven, with lingering citrus and stone fruit that slowly resolves into a crushed-shell minerality.
- Varietal
- Chardonnay (100%)
- Blend
- 100% Chardonnay
Cocktail Suggestion
Cocktail — The Art Series Spritz: Pour 4 oz Leeuwin Estate Art Series Chardonnay into a large wine glass over a single ice cube. Add 1 oz elderflower liqueur and top with 2 oz dry sparkling water.
Food Pairing
Pair with: Butter-poached lobster tail with preserved lemon and tarragon.
Redbreast Lustau Edition
Irish Distillers (Pernod Ricard)
The Lustau Edition is Redbreast's most layered expression — a whiskey that seems to change shape in the glass. That final year in Lustau's first-fill Oloroso butts doesn't overpower the pot still character; it adds a last chapter to an already complex story.
Cragganmore 12 Year Old
Diageo
Cragganmore 12 is the Speyside malt that rewards the patient nose. Where many single malts deliver their story in one dramatic chapter, Cragganmore reads like a novel with slow-building subplots. Those unique T-shaped lyne arms create a spirit of genuine complexity that unfolds over an hour in the glass.
Old Grand-Dad 114
Beam Suntory
Old Grand-Dad 114 is the thinking drinker's value bourbon — a bottle that punches so far above its price point it almost feels like a mistake. That 27% rye mash bill, nearly double the industry average, gives it a backbone of spice that would overwhelm a lesser whiskey, but here it serves as architecture for layers of caramel, chocolate, and charred oak to hang upon. The high proof isn't a gimmick — it's a magnifying glass, amplifying nuances that lower-proof expressions wash away. At under thirty-five dollars, this is a bottle that seasoned bourbon drinkers quietly recommend to one another.
Chairman's Reserve The Forgotten Casks
St. Lucia Distillers Group of Companies
The Forgotten Casks is the rum world's most eloquent argument for the virtue of accidental patience. Those extra years of unplanned aging produced a rum of remarkable layered depth at a price that would be impossible if it were intentional.
Pazo de Señorans Albariño 2022
Pazo de Señorans
Pazo de Señorans Albariño is the white wine that sommeliers pour for themselves. From a sixteenth-century manor in the Salnés Valley — the heart of Rías Baixas, where the Atlantic shapes every vine — this is Albariño at its most expressive.
Kumeu River Maté’s Vineyard Chardonnay 2021
Kumeu River Wines (Brajkovich family)
Kumeu River Maté’s Vineyard is the definitive proof that great Chardonnay can migrate from Burgundy to the Southern Hemisphere without losing its soul.
Benanti Etna Bianco 2022
Benanti Viticoltori
If fire built these eight bottles, then Benanti's Etna Bianco was built by the most patient fire of all — the volcanic eruptions that have been depositing mineral-rich ash and sand on the slopes of Mount Etna for thousands of years.
Joh. Jos. Prüm Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Spätlese 2021
Weingut Joh. Jos. Prüm (Prüm family)