This is yet another release that shows the continual transformation of Leeuwin cabernets into now some of the very best in the region. It was a terrific year for producing fruit of exceptional varietal expression and intensity, and real balance. This is largely cabernet but again, a tiny percentage of malbec plays an important role. It's had about 50% new French oak for nine months, and overall spends about 22 months in oak. It retains an elegance and poise, yet at the same time, it's powerful and intense. Blackcurrant, a little leaf, a touch of oyster shell, and even a fragrant lift of violet on the nose. It's seamlessly integrated with fine chalky tannins and fine oak. This is as good as any cabernet released yet from Leeuwin. Score: 97/100 Cellar: 20 years
97 POINTS
Erin Larkin - Robert Parker Wine Advocate
The 2022 Art Series Cabernet Sauvignon hails from a warm and dry vintage in Margaret River, one that is showing to be a very high-quality Cabernet vintage. The palate shows a pure core of raspberry and blood orange, nori and raw cocoa, even chinotto-esque in its leanings, with bramble and forest floor, graphite and cracked fennel seed. This is a velvety, tightly controlled, compact and excellent wine. The oak shows ever so slightly on the nose, in the form of malt biscuit and aniseed. This will be quickly subsumed by the fruit in a short time. The wine will be released April/May 2025.
96 POINTS
Ken Gargett - Winepilot
There is debate in the Margaret River region as to whether 2022 or 2023 is the better vintage. It is a line ball decision – both were wonderful, so consumers simply can’t lose – but I’d probably opt for the younger year by a whisker. All that means is that fans of this wine just might have something even more exciting down the track. The initial maturation for this wine was in French oak, 50% of which were new. The parcels were then blended and further maturation, a total of 22 months, took place in ‘French Bordelaise coopered barriques’. A vibrant maroon hue, the nose exhibits aromas of tobacco leaves, licorice, blackberries, truffles, graphite, cigar boxes and mulberries, with deftly handled oak, providing a flick of vanilla which sits comfortably. Balanced and lingering, with underlying intensity and juicy acidity, this has a seductive texture and will continue to improve for many years. Enjoy over the next ten to fifteen years. Leeuwin’s Art Series Cab now sits among the very best from the region.
96 POINTS
Jane Faulkner - Halliday Wine Companion
One of the most elegant Art Series wines to date, yet it still has plenty of detail and power, it just feels more composed. A whorl of mulberries and blackberries all spiced up with cedary oak and cinnamon, licorice root and nori. The more mid-weighted palate is very even, with beautifully judged cocoa powder-like tannins. The invigorating acidity lengthens out the finish. It’s singing now yet will age gracefully. Bravo.
96 POINTS
Cassandra Charlick - Decanter
Still curled up but crystalline fruit visible under good-quality oak. Salt-baked earth, sea breeze, nori, red berries, violets and hibiscus blossom. Cocoa dust, redcurrant and boysenberry. Exquisitely perfumed and singing with pure vineyard expression. An insane fruit intensity rings in the mouth and soaks right down to the toes. Delicate rosella and slight aniseed spice. Expansive and poetic, offering a lingering brightness. 99% Cabernet Sauvignon with 1% Malbec, average vine age 40 years, Houghton clone, aged 22 months in 225-litre Bordeaux oak.
96 POINTS
Cassandra Charlick - Decanter
Cabernet Sauvignon with a splash of Malbec (1%) spends 22 months in oak (50% new for nine months). Tight-knit oak guides towards cool blue fruit, wild strawberries, bundled brambles and wood spice. Plenty of velvety black fruit on the palate, lovely concentration without being dense. I adore the acidity – it just weaves through like sunlit water. A dusting of spice and liquorice pastilles. Oak is here, but doesn’t override. A great balancing act; the tannins are ripe and plush with a chalky frame and exceptionally long-lasting. There’s oodles of complexity at its core, flexing into a glossy roundness with savoury, salt-kissed tension. A very complete wine with good flavour persistence.
95 POINTS
Tom Kline - Winepilot
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.
95 POINTS
Gary Walsh - The Wine Front
Harvested through the first three weeks of April. 50% new oak. Because we most often review these wines before they are available commercially, I rarely have a bottle image to hand, so I took my own. I’m sure Leeuwin will shudder at its rough charm and send me a nice one promptly! This seems to be our equal second highest rated Cabernet from the 2022 Margaret River vintage – HERE. – also bear in mind that we are generally less profligate with our scores than many other publications. What I like most about this wine is its cool feel and lovely tightly-knit graphite tannin. It’s medium-bodied, tobacco and pencils, nutty and spicy, quite some perfume, and yes there’s a bit of peppermint floating about, though it sits well within the wine. Red and black fruit, nutmeg, a flicker of liquorice richness, and it’s so very long and composed. Top shelf.
