Cullen Diana Madeline 2023
Cullen Diana Madeline 2023
A$160, 13.5% alcohol, screwcap, Margaret River.
Every now and then a wine comes along with greatness tattooed across its heart. Cullen Diana Madeline 2023 is one of those rare wines. I sat down to a glass of this late one night – too late to be starting a fresh bottle – and thought, from the first sip, that something well out of the ordinary was going on. I wasn’t really intending to drink that full glass at that time, I thought it was just a teaser and that I’d return for a proper look the next day or night. But the glass disappeared. Because every sip delivered flavour, and brought confirmation, and shoved unwanted information out of my brain, and left an impression. If you took this wine to a Tarot reader they would foresee classic status in its future.
The chains of tannin here could guard a nation. The fruit is an army, bright, eager, drilled and deep. The nose is a flight, a dove-like flight, spread out, seeking interraction. The herbal notes here are not sweet but nor are they bitter; they are the woodwinds to the brass, string and percussion of the fruit and tannin. This is a wine and that’s all it is. But it stands as a defender of land and family. It feels strong. It feels patient. And it feels irresistible. But mostly, ultimately, in the most beautiful of ways and as all the best wines do, it feels like a sheer act of manifest resistance.
98 points – Campbell Mattinson.
[Cullen is a Mattinson 10-Star Winery]
