Cabernet Day: Australia’s finest under the microscope – Cullen Wines Diana Madeline

It’s Cabernet Day today and having recently tasted 30 years of Australia’s finest, Cullen Wines Diana Madeline Cabernet Merlot from 1981-2010, I think we know where this blog is going!

From 1981 through to barrel samples of the 2010 vintage, Cullen’s Cabernet Merlot showed great consistency, in terms of both quality and character.   The minerality of the wines was much remarked on.   As Rockpool Bar & Grill’s Wine Director Sophie Otton put it “from warm brick to clay terracotta to ochre, iron filings and iodine.”  For some, iodine was their kelp, Otton’s iron filings my gravel.  And it seems to me that the most recent, positively mineral-sluiced vintages, are possessed of this trait from the off.

The vertical brought home just how well suited Cabernet Sauvignon is to Margaret River’s temperate maritime climate and ironstone gravel soils and, specifically, to the Cullen vineyard at Wilyabrup in Margaret River.  It’s what prompted founders Kevin and Di Cullen and Tom Cullity of Vasse Felix to create  their own “appellation system” (see bottles pictured) years before Australia’s label integrity system (Geographic Indications) was established.  Overseen by Western Australia’s Agriculture Department, Vanya Cullen told me “they wanted to make sure that wine from other areas was not blended in Margaret river wines.”

Click here for my video interview with Vanya Cullen following the tasting and watch this space for my report on all the Cullen Wines 40th anniversary tastings: verticals of Diana Madeline Cabernet Merlot (1981-2010), the Semillon/Sauvignon (2001-2010), Kevin John Chardonnay (2002-2010) and Mangan Red (2004-2010).