The “Art Series” represents Leeuwin’s most opulent & age-worthy wines from each vintage. They are identified with paintings commissioned from leading contemporary Australian artists.

Leeuwin Art Series Chardonnay is aromatically complex and packed with flavor but maintains vivid acidity. The wine is fruit forward, typically citrus-driven but also showing pear and nuances of stone fruit. Oak-aging adds depth and gentle accents, such as cinnamon, but no overt woody notes. The wines easily age, and improve, for a good 15 years.

Leeuwin Estate’s Art Series Chardonnay is one of the benchmark whites of Margaret River, and the 2012 vintage arrives with the kind of critical consensus few Australian Chardonnays achieve. It’s 100% Chardonnay from Western Australia’s maritime Margaret River, and it is typically shaped by barrel fermentation and élevage in French oak. One retailer lists it at about 14% alcohol and under screw cap.

The strongest reviews are unequivocal. James Halliday awarded an excellent 97 points, calling it “all class and quality” with “Fruit, oak, texture, acidity, length: a hand full of aces.” Halliday also underlines its ease despite its detail, saying “the drinkability factor is extremely high.” James Suckling’s 95-point review leans into its breadth, describing “amazing richness and depth,” “so much apple pie character yet minerally underneath,” and noting “Screw cap.” Wine Spectator (94 points) emphasizes precision and integration, calling it “amazingly focused, layered and expressive,” with “pear, lime, guava and floral flavors” and a “creamy finish,” adding that it “pulls all the elements together into a cohesive whole.” Wine Spectator also reports “600 cases imported” and suggested drinking “now through 2022.”

The flavor profile across critics points to ripe stone fruit and citrus supported by overt, high-quality oak. Lisa Perrotti-Brown in Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate (92+) notes “evolving toast and marzipan notes” over “ripe apricots, candied ginger and butterscotch,” with a “satiny texture” and “racy freshness.” Wine Enthusiast (94) finds it “subtly toasty… blossoming with time into full-on crème brûlée aromas,” finishing long and suggesting “aging potential, up to 10 or 12 years.”

Decanter (93) gives useful vintage context—warmth moderated by sea breezes—and describes “fleshy, opulent” peach and nectarine with “nutty oak,” while observing that “the oak holds sway on the finish.” Overall, 2012 reads as a powerful, oak-framed Leeuwin Art Series that balances richness with drive, and has the structure to develop further in bottle.