2018 Leeuwin Estate Prelude Chardonnay Margaret River 750 ml

Leeuwin Estate is one of the iconic producers of Australian wine, known for making some of the best Chardonnay in the world—and if you wanted proof of their greatness, you’d have to look no further than the 2018 edition of their brilliant Prelude bottling. A 96-point masterpiece, it was hailed by James Halliday (Australia’s Robert Parker) as having “the game sewn up” with “magical” length on the palate—and we’re able to offer it for just $29 per bottle.

To have a Chardonnay of such high quality at this price is a testament to Leeuwin’s mastery of the grape. Halliday gushingly described the wine as “so precise, so balanced, [and] so pure”—all hallmarks of their racy, bold, New-Meets-Old World style. Although we’ve been big fans of their high-end Art Series bottlings in the past, today represents a unique opportunity: the first time we’ve been able to secure some of the Prelude for our members.

When we tasted the wine, we were as blown away as Halliday. There was such precision and complexity that it was hard to believe this wasn’t their $60 Art Series bottling or a Premier Cru white Burgundy—which is what Robert Emery, our Master of Wine candidate, called it while blind tasting.

The nose was bold, with ripe orchard fruit, like white peach and Comice pear, accented by a faint accent of brown butter—though it didn’t prepare us for the intensity of the palate. There was electricity the second the wine hit our tongues, with a veritable river of flavors: pears, peaches, fresh cream, and hazelnuts each made strong impressions and then quickly let the next take its turn, while a laser-beam of acidity and a hint of oak lingered on a long finish. 

This is the highest-ever rated vintage of the wine, which is really saying something because Leeuwin Estate crushed their first grapes in 1979, and Halliday has been reviewing the bottlings since 1996. Along the way, he’s called Leeuwin “my choice as Australia’s best maker of Chardonnay,” while Wine Spectator declared that “Leeuwin demonstrates just how great Australian fine wines can be.”

The Prelude is one of the outstanding deals in the world of wine because it’s given the same attention and care as Leeuwin Estate’s highest-end wines. Sourced from the same great site that Robert Mondavi identified in 1972 for its potential, the crushed and pressed juice is barrel-fermented in a modest amount of new oak, which provides a rich texture to balance the wine’s inherent brightness.

Our shot at Leeuwin’s Prelude was worth waiting for, but won’t be around for long. As you might expect for a wine with this sort of pedigree and price, there isn’t a lot of it available. Don’t throw away your shot to drink an icon.