VITICULTURE

 
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winemaking

biodynamics

 

The Cullen Vineyard

Cullen follows the maxim that states that great wines are made in the vineyard. Thus, prior to planting, extreme care is taken in choosing the best possible site.

The soils at Cullen are old, granite and gravely sandy loam, overlaying lateritic subsoils. The vines are dry farmed, helping to ensure maximum fruit quality, and are both pruned and harvested by hand.  Low yields enable the flavours of the grapes to develop fully.  The Cullen family philosophy is to put quality before quantity. Quality starts in the vineyard where the vines are dry farmed. Cullen Estate Vineyard has “A” Grade Biodynamic Certification with the ACO Australian Certified Organic (the new organisation from the BFA Biological Farmers Association).


The Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon due to their higher vigour are on a Lyre trellis. This gives a great area for the leaves and fruit to grow on, thereby enabling the fruit to reach proper physiological ripeness.  The Chardonnay has been put on vertical shoot positioned trellis as this variety seems to favour best this training system.

The red grape varieties Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Cabernet Franc have been converted to Scott Henry Trellis. This is to increase ripe flavours and develop higher quality tannins.


Cullen Wines sources fruit from its own "A" grade Biodynamically Certified Vineyard and also from Mangan Vineyard which is in conversionfor biodynamic certification. This fulfils the philosophies of quality , integrity and sustainability by having single vineyard sites grown using biodynamic techniques.

Cullen Estate Vineyard

28 hectares are currently planted, comprising of the following varieties.
Planted in 1971:
Cabernet Sauvignon (11.33ha)

Planted in 1976:
Semillon (1.14ha); Sauvignon Blanc (5.49ha); Chardonnay (7.43ha); Pinot Noir (0.92ha); Cabernet Franc (0.41ha) and Merlot (1.28ha).  

Mangan Vineyards

Sauvignon Blanc 4.8 hectares
Semillon 3.97 hectares
Malbec 2.458 hectares
Merlot 3.08 hectares
Petit Verdot 5.426 hectares