2024 Cullen Grace Madeline
2024 Cullen Grace Madeline

2024 Cullen Grace Madeline

96 pts
Cullen |Margaret River |Sauvignon Blanc
A serious, ageworthy take on the Margaret River SBS from one of the country’s most committed low-intervention estates.
Price:
$39.00
Stock:
In stock, ready to ship, only 4 units left
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Description

The Grace Madeline is Cullen’s take on the classic Margaret River white blend - Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon from the original 1976 estate plantings, farmed biodynamically and handled with minimal intervention. The wine is named after Vanya Cullen’s grandmother, and like the rest of the Cullen range, it’s all about purity of fruit and a light hand in the cellar.

Picked across a handful of fruit and flower days, the Sauvignon was fermented wild in a mix of barriques and concrete egg, with a portion spending time on skins to build texture and shape. The Semillon was fermented in tank to keep things fresh and focused. There’s no additions along the way, just time and patience, and it shows in the detail.

It’s bright and layered with a gentle grip that carries the wine through, finishing clean and long. Delicious now, but built to evolve.

96 points
"So complex with mineral and stone-driven notes and an underlying power that will evolve gracefully."
- Ryan Montgomery (James Suckling)

Ryan Montgomery

Ryan Montgomery

James Suckling 96 Points

This wine is all about perfume, flowers and a kiss of sun-touched fruit that makes it utterly enticing. Aromas of jasmine, apple blossoms, rose petals, melon and grapefruit. The textural, structured palate comes from 12 hours on the skins before pressing. So complex with mineral and stone-driven notes and an underlying power that will evolve gracefully. From biodynamically grown grapes. Excellent. Drink or hold. Screw cap.

95 points - "It’s always a classy wine, a serious iteration of SBS forfeiting tropical fruit for texture, a light thread of phenolics, smoky/cedary/spicy oak and some funky flint. It’s all about the palate really, although there are plenty of citrus flavours – think grapefruit, Meyer lemon and pomelo. It’s ready now but this will only build more complexity in time." - Jane Faulkner (Halliday Wine Companion)

95 points - "This white Bordeaux blend is one of the hallmarks of the Margaret River wine region, and Cullen has produced an ageworthy iteration since its earliest days. Named after Diana Madeline’s mother, this is abundant with lemon blossom, coriander stalk, pea shoot, a little crushed nutmeg, cedar dust and apricot kernel. The palate is silken and complete, oak adding a textural weave to the plump and full-flavoured fruit, but also a glossy, delicate frankincense perfume. There is plenty of enjoyment and refreshment right now, but there’s also reward ahead, maturing to nutty and tertiary complexity, for those who wait. A blend of 85% Sauvignon Blanc and 15% Semillon, with the Sauvignon Blanc component matured in 63% new oak for eight months." - Cassandra Charlick (Decanter)

94+ points - "It’s an engaging wine and one that’s full of personality. Citrus, dried mango, ginger biscuits, fennel and floral things, a bit like Chinese tea, lots of spice. It has a good burst of flavour, again a layer of spice, ripe lime and pear, fine chalky grip, something a little nutty and sake-like here, honey vanilla florals, and the finish is long and layered. Distinctive and very good. Lovely now, though likely better in a year or two." - Gary Walsh (The Wine Front)

94 points - "Medium yellow colour with a tinge of gold; intense nutty and spicy aromas, some herbal varietal notes but complexities arising from barrel work are most in evidence on the nose. A powerful, concentrated wine with a generous oak component, which will very likely develop greater complexity, balance and textural interest as it ages." - Huon Hooke (The Real Review)

This wine is named after Grace Madeline, Diana Madeline’s mother. Grace, originally from London, lived most of her life in Tasmania and was a suffragette, who loved nature as well as being mother to three daughters.

Grace Madeline wine is a blend of Sauvignon Blanc (85%) and Semillon (15%), planted on their own roots in 1976 on Cullen Estate. These vines are certified biodynamic and carbon neutral.

The fruit was harvested in February 2024 between 2nd and the 11th of March on 2 fruit days and one flower day. The phenolic tension and fine tannins come in part from overnight skin contact and texture from barrel fermentation and concrete egg fermentation. The average time in oak for the Sauvignon Blanc after natural yeast, fer-mentation, with no additions of acid yeast etc. was 8 months in barriques, 63% of which were new. The Semillon component was tank fermented.

Price Bracket $31 to $40
Type White
Body Medium Bodied
Variety Sauvignon Blanc
Country Australia
Region Margaret River
Australian State WA
Feature Biodynamic
Iconic
Organic
Women in Wine
Reviewed By The Real Review
The Wine Front
Halliday Wine Companion
Decanter
James Suckling
Critic Score 94
95
96
Alcohol 13%
Size 750ml
Vintage 2024
Closure Screw Cap

Cullen

The Cullen property has been in the Cullen family since 1948 with founders Diana Madeline and Kevin John planting the first vines on the farm in 1971.

Today Cullen sits as one of the top estates in Margaret River. Their impeccable versions of Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon are now both considered clear regional benchmarks.

The Cullen estate is farmed with a strict adherence to the principals of biodynamic farming. Current day owner and winemaker Vanya Cullen is one of the most outspoken advocates of the benefits of these practices in the industry and her results speak for themselves.

These are extraordinary wines that hold their own against the world's best. A gem of the Australian wine scene, to be sure.

Owner and winemaker, Vanya Cullen Cullen

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