Cullen
Cullen is a Mattinson 10-Star Winery — Campbell Mattinson's highest honour.
Margaret River.
Vanya Cullen is a unique talent on a special site; the result is greatness. But there is yet more to the story of Cullen.
The case.
It’s important to note that Cullen, established in 1971 but with vine-planting history in Margaret River dating back to 1966, won the award for Best Wine of Show at the 1977 Canberra Wine Show, and also a trophy at the 1982 Royal Perth Wine Show. The former award was the first time that a Margaret River wine – any Margaret River wine – had won a major trophy in Australia, and the latter award made Diana (Di) Cullen the first woman to win a trophy at Perth Royal. Di Cullen made the early Cullen wines and put the Cullen wine estate on the map, and while her husband Kevin Cullen is clearly of significant importance here too, it’s worth arguing that Diana Cullen deserves even greater recognition in the history of Australian wine than she is currently afforded. Di Cullen is, plainly, a legendary figure – as a wine maker, a wine proprietor, and a wine grower. No one cared about her land and the land of her region more than Di Cullen. Posthumously, she should be awarded the Maurice O’Shea award (Australia’s highest wine industry honour).
There’s a great deal more that could be said about the formative years of Cullen, its wins, its reliance on organics, its rise and rise. Cullen is the embodiment of great Margaret River Chardonnay, great Margaret River Cabernet Sauvignon and great Margaret River Cabernet Merlot, among other things and other varieties.
It’s important to recognise the above, because it is sometimes lost in the whirl of excellence carried forward, and expanded on, by Di and Kevin’s daughter, Vanya Cullen. Vanya Cullen is a giant of Australian wine. She took over the winemaking at Cullen in 1989, and as Managing Director in 1999, and has done nothing but elevate the estate further, or higher, since. Vanya Cullen should already have been named as a Maurice O’Shea Award winner. She is a giant herself, in her own right and by her own doing; she did though too, stand on the shoulders of her giant-figure of a mother, Di.
Cullen, now, isn’t just known for its elite Chardonnay and elite Cabernet Sauvignon; it’s known for the fact that it produces it every single year. The Cullen estate – essentially 28 hectares in size, though with other holdings, in the heart of the prized Wilyabrup sub-region – is farmed biodynamically, rigorously, carefully and thoughtfully. The wines of the Cullen estate have been outstanding for over forty years now but, under Vanya Cullen, quality has headed for the skies.
These modern Cullen wines – these structural, fresh, essential wines – handle the truth, speak the truth, are the truth.
The wines that prove the case.
Cullen Kevin John Chardonnay 2006 (Margaret River): Winefront.
Cullen Kevin John Flower Day Chardonnay 2013 (Margaret River): Winefront.
Cullen Kevin John Chardonnay 2021 (Margaret River): Winefront.
Cullen Kevin John Flower Day Chardonnay 2021 (Margaret River): Winefront.
Cullen Diana Madeline Cabernet Merlot 2012 (Margaret River): Winefront.
Cullen Diana Madeline Cabernet Merlot 2014 (Margaret River): Winefront.
Cullen Diana Madeline Cabernet Merlot 2015 (Margaret River): Winefront.
Cullen Diana Madeline Cabernet Merlot 2018 (Margaret River): Winefront.
Cullen Diana Madeline Cabernet Merlot 2019 (Margaret River): Winefront.
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See more [Cullen Chardonnay Reviews] on The Winefront site.
See more [Cullen Diana Madeline Cabernet Merlot Reviews] on The Winefront site.
See more of the Cullen cabernet journey here and more particularly: here (Vanya releases).
Cullen is a Mattinson 10-Star Winery – the highest honour awarded by Australian wine critic Campbell Mattinson. 10-Star status recognises one thing: the quality of the wine in the glass, every glass, across the range. The full list of 10-Star Wineries constitutes Australia's Best Wineries.
