Cullen – wines of striking vitality and individuality – help keep them that way!

In exactly one week, I’ll be attending the first of five days of presentations at Australia’s acclaimed Landmark Tutorial in the Yarra Valley.  This week and in the coming weeks, I’ll focus on Australian fine wine, the subject of the Tutorial and my subsequent fortnight of travel across Victoria and New South Wales. 

Today, I want to pick up and run with the theme of the opening seminar – “Australia’s Regional Classics” – which will be presented by Michael Hill-Smith AM MW of Shaw & Smith.  His talk will be “a context-setting narrative that explains the historic origin as well as the contemporary evolution of Australia’s finest wines.  Introducing benchmark expressions of regional definition and excellence.” 

Drilling down that bit further, I want to talk about the wines of Margaret River’s Cullen (pictured), which go beyond expressions of regional definition and excellence.  They are also veritable conduits of their very specific terroir, the Cullen and Mangan vineyards.  As Chief Winemaker, Vanya Cullen, puts it “biodynamics gives a very pure line and direct expression of the vine in the bottle.”  

For this reason, Cullen eschews the acid and yeast additions common to New World wines.  For her, the wines’ expression of the Cullen and Mangan terroir is as much about the interaction of the grapes with the vineyards’ and winery’s complex consortium of indigenous yeast as the vines’ interaction with the soils and microclimate. 

Tasting is believing.  Every time I try Cullen’s latest releases, I’m struck by how individual and vital the wines have become.  Take the Cullen Kevin John Chardonnay 2007, just awarded the International Chardonnay Trophy (over £10) by the Decanter World Wine Awards – howzat for an Australian Chardonnay?!?  But then this Chardy wildy diverges from the national stereotype with its racy lime and mouthwatering tang.  Similarly, weighing in at a featherweight 12.5% abv, red flagship Diana Madeline Cabernet Merlot 2008 flies in the face of the mainstream. 

Below you’ll find my notes on the latest releases, which I tasted last week.  But before you read them, please click here and read about the potentially detrimental effect on Cullen’s unique indigenous yeast consortium of  the development of a microbrewery next door.  I know from experience working vintage at Cullen in 2007 and regular visits just how hard the team have worked to maximise terroir expression in their wine and work as naturally as possible.  And to great effect – these are some of Australia’s best wines and their philosophy of quality, integrity and sustainability deserves our support.  If you agree,  register your support for Cullen by signing their online petition here – with the case due to be heard at the end of this month, the more names the better!

2009 Cullen Margaret River White – this blend of Sauvignon, Semillon, Chardonnay and Verdelho is lifted, floral and lightly citrus, with some apple and spice.  Gently waxy in the mouth, it shows dried honey and nutty praline hints on the finish.  Very hands off (in a good way) – I’d be hard pressed to guess it was Australian on a blind tasting. I’d have thought Southern French.

2009 Cullen `Mangan Vineyard’ Sauvignon Blanc/Semillon – a tight nose and palate, quite textured too, with an earthy, funky note I associate with the Mangan SBS (as opposed to the Cullen Vineyard SBS).  Also very Mangan in its vivid, neon-bright line of lemon fruit that powers a long, persistent palate, with interesting layer and texture. 

2008 Cullen Margaret River Red – a Cabernet Sauvignon-led blend with Malbec, Merlot, Petit Verdot and a soupcon of Cabernet Franc.  Quite pale red, with Malbec really showing its hand on nose and palate with violets and ripe, succulent black cherry providing a sweet core of fruit.  But the whole is elegant, with a lovely vitality, freshness and length, supported by a fine thread of tannin.

2008 Cullen `Mangan` Margaret River – a unique blend of Merlot, Malbec and Petit Verdot, always animated though dark and spicy with fleshy, juicy cinnamon dusted black cherry and berry edged with tobacco and dark chocolate.  Fine tannins maintain the flow.

2007 Cullen `Diana Madeline` Margaret River – plums and earth on the nose, with a lovely saturation of juicy redcurrant and cherry with throatier, lifted spice and tobacco-edged blackcurrant and cassis behind.  Chocolate too but, subtle as.  Tannins are fine but present.  Lovely.

And to finish – 30 years of Cabernet!

1988 Cullen Cabernet (pre-organic) – savoury with a Sunday roast meat pan juices edge to its plum fruit.  In the mouth there’s a touch of greenness poking through, but all the components are there: fruit (plum and blackcurrant), tannin and acidity.  Still going!

1998 Cullen Cabernet (organic) – a you’d expect, still quite forceful and primary with riper cassis, plum and a savoury, earthy quality as well as spice.  The tannins are a touch dusty on the finish.  Still going strong.

2008 Cullen Diana Madeline (biodynamic) – very pale, perfumed and pretty with violets, red currant and cherry through to blackcurrant with hints of tobacco – a very pure expression of Cabernet.  Wonderfully delicate yet intense – I thought William Downie’s Pinot Noirs were delicate until I tasted this!  Aside from vineyard practices, the team reckon a new basket press and vibrating sorting table (which removes leaf material and infertile berries, providing cleaner fruit) produced even more refined tannins – Q.E.D!

Click here for a vertical tasting of Cullen’s flagship wines.