14 Cullen Wines Including some of Australia’s Finest & Best Reviewed
Vanya Cullen is one of Australia’s greatest 2-3 winemakers – I say this … based on the truly outstanding quality of the
Legacy Series Chardonnays and the Vanya Cabernet Sauvignons.
… And Ray Jordan prefers these Kevin John and Diana Madeline’s to the Legacy Series releases!
Some of the highlights you’ll get to taste include:
The Legacy Series Sauvignon Blanc 2019
The Kevin John Chardonnay 2022 & 2023, alongside the Legacy Series Flower Day 2022…
then a 3 x Cabernet Sauvignon Merlot Vertical of 2017 | 2021 | 2022 Diana Madeline,
with the outstanding Vanya ‘Flower Day’ Cabernet Sauvignon 2017
Wow … does it get any better?
Hosted by Andy Barrett-Lennard
Lunch: Noon, 15 Wines & 5 Courses $295
Masterclass: 4-6pm, 12 Wines with nibbles $75
Dinner: 6:30pm, 15 Wines & 5 Courses $295
Sunday December 8th
About Cullen Winery:
One of the first wineries to be established in the famous Wilyabrup wine growing region of Margaret River, Western Australia. In 1971, Dr Kevin Cullen and his wife Diana planted and nurtured what has become one of Australia’s finest and most well-respected wineries.
Cullen Wines has remained a family business, and the care and respect that Kevin and Di showed for the land and their passion for producing quality wines ins a legacy that continues today. In 1998, the winery was successfully converted to organic practices and in 2004. Since taking the reins several years ago, Vanya Cullen’s passion and hard work has paved the way for the business to become a fully certified A Grade biodynamic winery and the first winery in Australia to be certified 100% carbon neutral.
Cullen Wines’ flagships, the Diana Madeline Cabernet blend and the Kevin John Chardonnay, are consistently rated nationally and internationally as the best in their respective fields. Cullen’s natural and biodynamic wines bring the purest expression of place and land on which they are grown.
A pioneer of Margaret River, Cullen Wines has always produced long-lived wines of highly individual style. The vineyard has progressed beyond organic to biodynamic certification and, subsequently, has become the first vineyard and winery in Australia to be certified carbon positive. Winemaking is in the hands of Vanya Cullen, daughter of founders Kevin and Diana Cullen; she is possessed of an extraordinarily good palate and generosity to the cause of fine wine. Vanya was awarded the Companion's inaugural Viticulturist of the Year in '22, Cullen's 50th anniversary year.
James Halliday, Wine Companion
The Wine List & Menu
On Arrival
‘Dancing in the Moonlight’ Rose 2023
93 Points, Ray Jordan
Without fail, this delightful rose is always right on the money. It’s a blend of all red varieties grown at Cullen and is made using the saignee method of bleeding off a portion of the wine during fermentation. The colour is a pale copper with a little amber. The aromas lift with notes of strawberry and fresh cream. The palate has a deliciously appealing texture with the fine lingering acidity sustaining the clean pure finish.
‘Mangan Vineyard’ Semillon Sauvignon Blanc 2023
95 Points, James Halliday, Halliday Wine Companion (June 2024)
A 58/37/5% blend of sauvignon blanc/semillon/verdelho; hand picked on biodynamic fruit and flower days; wild fermented and no acid additions. It's as fresh as a daisy, with bright, clear zesty citrus fruits and excellent balance.
‘Grace Madeline’ Semillon Sauvignon Blanc 2023
96 Points, Ray Jordan
As I suspected, a great vintage has contributed to the best example of this wine yet. It is marvellous. It’s a blend of sauvignon blanc and semillon with the sauvignon blanc matured in 85% new French oak. So, here’s the thing. That’s a lot of new French oak, and yet the power and intensity of the fruit has taken it in with ease. There is a pristine fruit purity and minerality here that works neatly into the palate texture. A simply stunning example of this style where the winemaking has gently coaxed the best from the fruit.
‘Legacy Series’ Sauvignon Blanc 2019
97 Points Erin Larkin, Halliday Wine Companion (May 2022)
Fruit from Block 1 picked on a flower day (MOSH), 8 days on skins, through basket to puncheons (20% new) where it matured for 6 months. 2019 was a cool year, producing mineral, aromatic and very fine wines. This is no exception. Salted edamame, sugar snap, jasmine tea, white currant, green apple skin, juniper berry and saltbush eddy around on the palate, swirling in and out of exotically spiced oak, crushed limestone/talc/basalt/petrichor. Evokes cicadas on a hot afternoon sea breeze, somehow. This is the most profound sauvignon blanc in Australia.
1st course
‘Metricup’ Chardonnay 2024
There’s an abundance of bound ripe fruit, Anjou pear, yellow peaches, red apple skins and citrus curd. Fresh acidity and gentle phenolics envelope around the rich fruit core of the wine. It’s elegant in style, showing a fresh and clean finish. The wine is supported by mineral characters of crushed seashells and coastal salinity that are, for the time being, gently hidden beneath the rich fruit power of the wine, waiting patiently to expand as the wine evolves in the bottle.
(Cullen Wine Notes)
'Kevin John' Chardonnay 2022
98 Points Ray Jordan Winepilot (July 2023)
The approach to viticulture and then winemaking means that this wonderful Chardonnay from the 2022 vintage is as pure as you can get. It all sort of just happens, under the umbrella of a fastidious and rigorously uncompromising biodynamic discipline. The aromas are immediately complex and engaging with traces of talc and lime, a little pear and some nice roasted cashew. The palate kicks in with its power and precision displaying attractive savoury minerality, a little spice and vanilla bean and a rich buttery, though controlled, textural feel in the mouth. The purity and expression of place is heightened by the fact it is bottle unfined and unfiltered. This is a window into one of the finest vineyards in the land.
'Kevin John' Chardonnay 2023
99 Points Ken Gargett Winepilot (April 2024)
From the excellent 2023 vintage in Margaret River, the Kevin John Chardonnay is Cullen’s ‘standard’ Chardonnay, and what a wine. Never less than thrilling these days, the fruit for this wine was harvested over a three-week period then whole bunch pressed before fermentation in a mix of vessels – biodynamic puncheons, amphorae and a concrete egg. Eight months maturation in the puncheons, 80% of which were new, the wine is 100% Gin Gin clone. Balance, elegance and complexity, even at this early stage, are the hallmarks here. Great energy, the nose gives us notes of nuts/cashews, peaches, stonefruit, a hint of riverstones and orange blossoms. Vanilla, florals, honeycomb and a hint of crisp pear, the focus here is superb, through to an impressively long finish. Expect this to drink superbly for at least fifteen years.
Legacy Series 'Flower Day' Chardonnay 2022
98 Points Ray Jordan Winepilot (November 2023)
Another extraordinary wine that is part of the Legacy Series. It is a wine that reflects so much of the vineyard and the place. The aim is simply to express the vineyard with honesty in its most natural form. Take one sip of this and the palate stays with you for ages. Aromas of citrus with a dried fruit and lemon curd influence announce its arrival. This was a powerful vintage and its seen clearly in this wine with its super concentrated palate, fine acidity and soaring flavour profile which extends to a ridiculously long finish. Another great wine.
2nd Course
‘Ephraim’ Malbec Petit Verdot 2023
94 Points Ray Jordan
The deepest, darkest colour you could ever imagine sits in the glass of this 70/30 blend of malbec and petit verdot from Cullen’s Mangan vineyard. It’s named after Kevin Cullen’s grandfather Ephraim, who like Cullen was a wine pioneer, albeit in the previous century. All naturally fermented and basket pressed before maturation in oak of which 35% was new for 8 months. It’s a powerful statement with rich dark chocolate and black fruit flavours supported by firm chalky tannins and a liberal hit of oak. It's a sort of big easy wine.
‘Legacy’ Malbec 2020
Rich and textured layers of fruit spin through the plate with fine tannins coating the front palate in a wonderful dance of cherry, bay leaf, black pepper and seaweed. (Cullen)
3rd Course
'Diana Madeline' Cabernet Sauvignon 2021
98 Points Ken Gargett, Winepilot.com (February 2023)
…The structure is immaculate while the wine is focused, with the intensity maintained the full length to a very long finish supported by silky tannins. Certainly, young now, and although it really is enjoyable, expect this wine to give great pleasure over the next two decades. It is going to get even better. This will surely be one of the top wines of the year, even at this early stage.
'Diana Madeline' Cabernet Sauvignon 2020
98 Points James Halliday, Halliday Wine Companion (May 2022)
Has the usual estate blend of cabernet sauvignon, merlot, cabernet franc and malbec (92/4/3/1%), the grapes handpicked on fruit days between early February and early March, the components matured in French oak (50% new) for 13 months. The perfumed bouquet has already soaked up the new oak, the purity of the fruit in a cassis-redcurrant-blueberry spectrum. The small berries of a quasi-drought summer might have imposed awkward tannins, but the medium-bodied palate is so perfectly balanced it has a drinking span of 30 years and counting.
'Diana Madeline' Cabernet Sauvignon, Magnum 2017
The Wine Companion 2020 Best Cabernet Blend of the Year
James Halliday’s Top 100 Wines of 2019
98 Points, James Halliday, Halliday Wine Companion (June 2021)
…The colour is faultless, as is the wine. It has waves of complexity, like one of Margaret River's surf breaks, changing shape as the luxuriant cassis swells on the mid-palate, then finishes with ripe, textured tannins as the wave goes on to crash on the shore. The overall ripeness is perfection. Drink by 2042.
‘Vanya’ Flower Day Cabernet Sauvignon 2017
98 Points James Halliday, Halliday Wine Companion (June 2021)
Hand-picked, wild-fermented in terracotta amphorae, then pressed to French barriques (66% new) for a further 6 months. The only addition was minimal SO2, biodynamic principles followed throughout. The light crimson colour is deceptive, as is the light to medium-bodied palate. The bouquet is ultra-fragrant, the aromas and flavours locked into red fruits, cassis and gentle but persistent tannins. Utterly delicious.
4th Course
Cullen Late Harvest Chenin Blanc 2023
Capturing the beautiful natural acidity of Chenin, the wine was chilled to finish with 130 g/L of sugar. A delicious and fresh dessert wine that will gain further complexity with age. Delicious quince, apples, honey, maple syrup and limes; a beautiful balance and drive of fruit.
(Cullen Wine Notes)
