2007 DIANA MADELINE

  
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    Perhaps Cullen's best-known wine, this blend was recently included in the prestigious Langton Classification of Australian Wines. The vines planted in 1971 are 30 years old. On average the yields are around two tons per acre, or 26 hectolitres per hectare, giving great concentration to the wine. They are grown on the Scott Henry trellising system, which yields grapes with ripe tannins and flavours. This wine is typically a blend of 60% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot and 10% Cabernet Franc. The varieties are vinified separately and matured in French oak for 18 months. The result is a deeply coloured wine with great depth of flavour, fine grain tannins and outstanding cellaring potential.

Langtons Classification 2005 - "Exceptional"
Vanya Cullen has taken her cabernet merlot into the top echelon of Australian cabernet through determination and superb technical skills. The vineyard site is planted on granitic soils in the central Willyabrup subregion of Margaret River. Cullen has adopted biodynamic viticulture principles to "achieve greater individuality of site through working with nature rather than against it". This estate style is about freshness and complexity, structure and suppleness. There are cassis and cedar aromas with fine, beautifully ripe tannins, and earthy, anise, gamy aromas and flavours develop with age. Named for Diana Cullen, who established the winery and vineyard with her husband in 1966. Top vintages: 2002, 2001, 1999, 1998, 1997, 1996, 1995, 1994.		  
 
     
Tasting notes   Reviews
     

This is one of the greatest Diana Madeline’s. The outstanding quality of this wine reflects a combination of the excellent conditions that existed for all red grape varieties during the lead up to the 2007 vintage and the benefits of employing the best biodynamic practices. 

The vines at the end of winter in 2006 were in exceptionally good health and thus able to capitalise fully on the stimulus provided by an unusually warm spring. The more rapid than usual growth of the vines in the spring resulted in the grapes of the early varieties being ready for harvesting before the end of January, which led to the earliest start to vintage ever recorded at Cullen Wines. Although spring and early summer temperatures were as much as 2.5˚C above average, they never became excessive and the vines received the benefit of two good bursts of rainfall at the peak of their growing season.

The outstanding quality of the fruit that was produced, particularly the red varieties, during the warm vintage in 2007 provides good evidence that the vines on the Cullen Vineyards are able to adapt very successfully to increases in temperature during the lead up to vintage. This adaptability is attributed to the benefits of employing a well established biodynamic approach to viticulture. From the encouraging experience gained in 2007, the Cullens consider that the effects of global warming on their vines are likely to be limited, which is a huge relief. 
The 2007 Diana Madeline was made from 84% Cabernet Sauvignon, 8% Merlot, 4% Cabernet Franc and 4% Petit Verdot.

The fruit was picked at Baumés ranging from 12.0 to 13.8˚ and fermentation employed natural yeasts. The wine was matured for 14 months in high quality French oak barriques.

Colour: Very concentrated deep red
Bouquet: Already very complex, combining clean and rich blackcurrant aromas (typical of great vintages of this wine style) with a touch of blackberry and vanillin oak.
Palate: The complex amalgam of liquorice, fennel and different fruit flavours, including plum, mulberry, red currant and blueberry, are backed by just the right amount of clean oak. Long and persistent. The extraordinary depth of flavour reflects the outstanding quality of the 2007 vintage
Cellaring: At least 20 years
Food: All red meat dishes and medium - flavoured cheeses.
 

Philip White, The Independent Weekly,
19 June 2009

Diana Madeline Margaret River Cabernet Sauvignon Merlot 2007  
Just to fully impose her dominance over Australian fine winemaking, Vanya Cullen doubles her whammy with this astonishing bio-D blend of cabernet sauvignon (84 per cent), merlot (8 per cent); cabernet franc (4 per cent) and petit verdot (4 per cent). It bought to me a vision of a hot gothic! Sultry-musky Mananne, Faithfull sitting with a knife and fork to devour a quivering gelatinous block of arterial blood, blood orange, soot, coffee, ancient oolong tea, and trainline gravel, dusted with gunpowder and the pollen of forests and fields of meadow blooms. It’s an extreme, profoundly beautiful thing. Thirty years in the cellar.