Cullen Diana Madeline Cabernet Sauvignon 2021: Re-visited

Cullen Diana Madeline Cabernet Sauvignon 2021 is a benchmark Cabernet Sauvignon.

The first words I wrote at the Cape Mentelle International Cabernet Sauvignon tasting this year were – having just tasted the first wine and the first wine only – “well, job done, I’ve just tasted the wine of the day.” It was a blind tasting of twenty Cabernet Sauvignons from around the world and while there would no doubt be many other stellar wines among them, this first wine was so emphatically good that I doubted that it would or could be topped.

It turned out, when the identity of all the wines was later revealed, that this first wine was Cullen Diana Madeline Cabernet Sauvignon 2021.

“Gumleaf and blackcurrant. Gravelly top notes. Firm tannin. Such command,” my note continued. “Pencil shavings and cocoa. This is the cabernet brief, nailed. There’s flavour to the acidity. There’s firm, muscular power. There’s joy, flesh, freshness and silk.”

We’ve reviewed a lot of Cullen Diana Madeline Cabernet Sauvignon releases at The Winefront over the years, as well as this 2021 specifically. The cabernet vines at Cullen were planted in 1971, which means that the mainstay of this wine – it’s a blend of 91% Cabernet Sauvignon, 4% merlot, 3% cabernet franc and 2% malbec – was grown on vines that are now 50 years old. All these vines are of course grown biodynamically. The grapes were picked across two weeks, in five separate hand picks. The alcohol reading is 13.5.

The world’s best wines, across all categories, have been known to get the odd free kick. As in, their iconic status has a tendency to lead to rapturous reviews as a matter of course. I went into this tasting knowing that some of the wines to be served were closer in price to $40 than to $400 or $4000. i.e. just because a wine was at this tasting, it didn’t mean that it was expensive, or well known, or lauded. For one of Australia’s most highly regarded, and awarded, wines to then front up in a blind tasting and lay the law down with such vigor is impressive, and tells us that this emperor is fully clothed.

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96 points – Campbell Mattinson.