Leeuwin Estate Art Series Cabernet Sauvignon 2016

Professional Ratings

• 96 Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

  The 2016 Art Series Cabernet Sauvignon is a fierce wine with layers of tannins, yet the fruit manages to be supple and fresh on the mid-palate. It's leafy and brooding and dark, with cassis, resin, tar and star anise, hints of blackberry and tobacco and a mineral skeleton of fine tannins; it feels of the earth and place. There's nice clarity too. It is fresh, in its way, and certainly has a very long road ahead of it.

• 94 Wine & Spirits
  Take cabernet’s austere demeanor to the surf town of Margaret River and it transforms over time, producing a wine like this 2016 Art Series—a fruity red with cold ocean currents running underneath. The wine’s deep plum richness carries peppercorn spice and fresh tobacco leaf as the details of the tannins unfold. Youthfully blunt, needing days to reveal itself, this wine’s savory concentration holds depths that will show with bottle age, and the freshness to sustain the wine for years in the cellar.
• 94 James Suckling
  Impressively curated cabernet with cedar and tobacco aromas framing bright red berries, as well as bergamot, black tea, red plums and violets. The palate has a smooth, succulent and elegantly juicy shape and such fine, taut and layered tannins that carry so long and pure. Superb cab with power and elegance. Best from 2024.
• 93 Wine Enthusiast
  This vintage feels a little riper than the previous year, and the vanilla-cola oak is currently more prominent, too. There's also oodles of bright red berries, flowers, mint, earthy herbs and spices, with a regionally expressive briny, sea spray note. On the palate, there's a little warmth from the alcohol and not quite as much textural complexity as the 2015, but this is still highly varietal and expressive. The fruit is tangy, supported by firm, chalky tannins. Drink now–2035.
• 91 Wine Spectator
  There's an appealing density and savory quality here, with rosemary, green tea, sage, cedar and tobacco overtones to the currant and raspberry flavors, set against a frame of firm, gripping tannins, fresh acidity and a forest floor note that lingers. Drink now through 2030.