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Margaret
River, Western Australia
Part
4:
Cullen
The next stop was Margaret River pioneer Cullen, where
I was to meet with MD Vanya Cullen (pictured above). It was founded by
Vanya’s parents, medical doctor Kevin Cullen and his wife Diana, who
first planted a quarter of acre of vines at the current site in 1966,
as an experiment.
It was the publication in 1965 by Dr John Gladstones of
a famous paper (J. Gladstones, ‘The climate and Soils of South
Western Australia in Relation to Vinegrowing.’ Journal of Australian
Institute of Agricultural Science, December 1965) which first led the
Cullens to plant a trial quarter acre of vines in this previously
unplanted area. This followed a public meeting convened by Kevin
Cullen to bring together people with an interest in growing wine in
the area for discussion. They were assisted by Bill Jamieson, the
State Viticulturalist. Vanya showed me one of his letters, dated 13th
July 1966, in which he gives advice on establishing this initial
vineyard.
Encouraged by this experiment, and the success of
others such as Dr Tom Cullity of Vasse Felix, who was the first to
establish a commercial vineyard in the region in 1967, the Cullens
planted 7.7 hectares of Cabernet Sauvignon and Riesling on what is now
the Cullen Vineyard in 1971. Other varieties were added in 1976, and
then Sauvignon Blanc in 1988.
Establishing a successful commercial vineyard was hard
work. Kevin was busy with his medical practice in Busselton, which was
needed to finance the vineyard. But as well as the vineyard and his
medical practice, he had six children and a 2000 acre sheep and cattle
farm to worry about. In 1976 the Cullens sold their Busselton home to
raise capital, and it wasn’t until 1994, the year of Kevin’s
death, that the vineyard broke even for the first time in 23 years.
As well as being a Margaret River pioneer, Dr Kevin
Cullen also established the famous Busselton Health Study (http://bsn.uwa.edu.au/),
which is one of the longest running epidemiological studies anywhere,
in 1966. Today, 10% of the sales of one of the Cullen wines is given
to fund this study.
There are two vineyards, Mangan and Cullen, and
altogether 15 000 cases are produced. Recently, the focus at Cullen
has been on improving the viticulture to make it more sustainable.
‘It’s all about the soils’, says Vanya, ‘so in 1998 we
committed to organics’. Cullen began working with cover crops and
composts, and in 2003 achieved organic certification with the
biological farmers association. In the same year, Vanya went to a
biodynamics workshop, and like what she heard. She decided that
biodynamics was the way to go, and achieved certification in 2005
(again, with the Biological Farmers Association of Australia).
How has biodynamics made a difference? ‘It’s a
personal opinion’, says Vanya, ‘but I think we have a greater
vibrancy of fruit flavours and more aliveness in the wine. We are
trying to generate a sense of energy from the land into the bottle.’
A lot of biodynamic practice relies on the timing. ‘We are
harvesting on fruit days as much as we can’, she adds. ‘This year
we managed to achieve this with 90% of the harvest’.
 Has
biodynamics cost anything to implement? ‘There are no extra costs
involved’, Vanya reveals. ‘If anything it is cheaper because we
don’t have chemicals in storage sheds’. She adds that in the last
two years they haven’t needed to use any copper, the traditional
biodynamic remedy for mildew.
The low input approach has extended to the winery. We
don’t add anything, says Vanya. There are no yeast or acid
additions. We entered the winery and did some sampling, both of the
recently completed 2007 vintage, and the trickier preceding vintage.
Whether or not the vineyard practices are responsible, on the basis of
this tasting Cullen seems to be on top of their game. The wines are
brilliant.
Two Sauvignon 2007 samples, one from Cullen and one
from Mangan, were quite different but very good.
2006 Mangan Merlot/Malbec/Petit Verdot was rich,
generous and full with nice elegant fruit. Smooth, dense, stylish and
elegant.
2007 Semillon: Rich, fresh style with plenty of weight
and good acidity
2007 Chardonnay: lovely fruit and good acidity.
2006 Chardonnay: this variety does early budburst so it
gets hit hard by variable weather. In 06 they lost 80% of crop because
of strong wind at flowering. But what was left turned out well: this
is rich, expressive, vibrant with nice toasty complexity and a nice
savoury minerally edge. 91–93/100
2007 Pinot Noir: Harvested at 12/5% this is a nice pale
colour with lovely elegant sweet fruit. Bright, sweet
fresh strawberry and cherry fruit palate. Very stylish and
delicious. Naturally fermented. 90+
Merlot 2007: Fantastic fresh cherry and blackcurrant
fruit, with a bit of herbiness. Bright, spicy, fruity palate with some
structure and a nice spicy finish. Quite serious.
2006 Cabernet Sauvignon: Vibrant, full-on black fruits
with a savoury, spicy tannic structure. Chunky and very good.
2006 Merlot: lovely leafy, gravelly nose leads to a
palate with good density and a savoury tightness.
2006 Malbec: dark coloured, wild and complex with a
nice spiciness.
2007 Cabernet Sauvignon: dense and tannic with lots of
fruit: spicy, gravelly and dense.
We then lunched at the Cullen’s lovely restaurant,
and tried some bottled wines.
Cullen Mangan Sauvignon Blanc/Semillon 2006
Smooth, fresh, balanced white with a bit of grassiness and tight
acidity. Focused and pleasant. 89/100
Cullen Cullen Vineyard Sauvignon Blanc/Semillon 2006
Open nose with a herby edge. Much fuller and richer
than the Mangan, with sweet rounded fruit. 89/100
Cullen Chardonnay 2005
Rich, open nose is quite complex. Bold, full flavoured, rounded
palate. Nutty and rich with lots of ripe fruit and good spicy
complexity, together with some attractive minerality. Sylish. 93/100
Cullen Mangan 2005
A blend of roughly equal amounts of Malbec, Merlot and Petit
Verdot. Deep coloured. Lovely forward black fruit characters on the
nose with a tight savouriness. Spicy and dark. The palate is
concentrated and full with wonderful rich, sweet dark fruit backed up
by spicy tannins. Bright and fresh with good acidity. A
thought-provoking wine. 92/100
Cullen Diana Madeline 2005
Three-quarters Cabernet Sauvignon with the remainder made up of
Merlot and a dribble of Malbec, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot.
Complex, dark, smooth nose is fresh and pure with a bit of spiciness.
The palate has bold, sweet blackcurrant fruit with dense spiciness and
plenty of structure. It is concentrated, bold and brilliantly balanced
– a serious, ageworthy effort. 94/100
Cullen Diana Madeline 2004
Pure, sweet blackcurrant fruit nose with a lovely sweet, subtly
herbal leafy aromatic edge. The palate is ripe, pure and smooth with
lovely elegance and nicely poised blackcurrant fruit. It’s drinking
very well now but it will go the distance. 93/100
Wines tasted 04/07
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