Cullen Wines Winery

Cullen Wines has played an enormous role in the development of the Margaret River wine region, with Kevin and Di Cullen planting the first Margaret River vineyard in 1966. In 1971 this was followed up by a larger planting of 18 acres of Cabernet Sauvignon and Riesling, the only grape varieties they were able to source at the time, joining Vasse Felix, Cape Mentelle, Leeuwin Estate and Moss Wood as one of Margaret River’s founding fathers.

From 1976 additional plantings of Chardonnay, Semillon, Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Noir, Merlot and Cabernet Franc were added to the estate vineyard rounding off the varieties for which Cullen wines are best known to this day.

Winemaking at Cullen was first undertaken full-time by Di Cullen in 1981 with Vanya becoming assistant and then Senior Winemaker in 1984 and 1989 respectively. Under both Di and Vanya, Cullen has risen to become one of not only Margaret Rivers’ but also Australia’s most outstanding wineries. While the Diane Madeline Cabernet Sauvignon blend has certainly been the leading Cullen wine to date, recent vintages of the Kevin John Chardonnay show that this is also among the countries best.

Cullen Wines Philosophy and Winemaking

Walking through the Cullen vineyards, it instantly becomes clear that these sites are very different to the majority of Australian vineyards, such is the vitality of life and richness seen in the soils. Part of this is undoubtedly due to the strict adherence to biodynamic viticulture seen here, through which synthetic pesticides and herbicides are not used during the growing season. Grapes are hand pruned when ripe, hand sorted and then fermented with natural yeasts with minimal fining prior to bottling. These are truly hand-made wines.

Cullen Wine types

Cullen has a number of ranges, all of which are sourced from their Estate and Mangan vineyards. At the very top are the iconic Diane Madeline Cabernet Merlot and Kevin John Chardonnay, wines that figure strongly on Australia’s fine wine radar and crafted from fruit grown on the original vineyards. Below these are the great value “little Diane” Cabernet Merlot, Mangan, Cullen Sauvignon Blanc Semillon, Mangan Semillon Sauvignon Blanc with the Margaret River Red and White rounding off the portfolio.

Watch Stuart MacGill uncork Cullen