2002 CHARDONNAY

  
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Complexity and texture are hallmarks of the Cullen Chardonnay. The fruit for this wine is harvested at varying degrees throughout vintage to contribute a range of flavours.

The wine is fermented with natural yeasts and maturated in French oak for seven to ten months.  In order to preserve flavour and texture the wine has, if any at all, a light fining and filtration just prior to bottling.

Cullen Chardonnay will cellar well for up to ten years.

  
 
     
Tasting notes   Reviews
     

This wine, together with the 1997, are the best Chardonnays yet made at Cullen Wines. The quality largely reflects the influence of the perfect conditions that led up to vintage. The cool even temperatures during summer have resulted in the production of a wine which exhibits a perfect balance between fruit flavours and acid and has great suppleness. The intensity of the fruit was also enhanced by the very low yields of only 1/4 ton to the acre. The fruit was picked at levels ranging from 12.6 to 14º Baumé to ensure that the flavours of the wine were complex. The wine was fermented using wild yeast and 60% underwent malolactic fermentation. All of the wine was matured for nine months in new French oak.

Colour: Medium straw with green tinges
Bouquet: Fresh and rich lemon and guava fruit aromas are complemented by the presence of subtle background oak
Palate: The fruit characters on the bouquet flow through on to the palate which is perfectly integrated. The delicious supple and creamy flavours in the middle palate lead into a long and very persistent finish
Cellaring: 10 years
Food: All types of seafood, pasta, chicken and veal
 

Uncorked Spring Wine Guide 2004
Huon Hooke and Ralph Kyte-Powell

"Vanya Cullen's Chardonnay is superb. The '02 is a reserved character, subtle and refined with elaborate citrus. Melon, honeyed, nutty and creamy characters that are truly delicious. It has lovely smooth complexity, great balance, length and freshness. Food: grilled marron or scampi. Ageing: one to five years"

Philip Rich The Australian Financial Review Magazine
31 December 2004

"One of Margaret River's - and indeed Australia's - finest wine producers, it is not just the superb cabernet that deserves all the gongs. The chardonnay continues to improve each year as Vanya Cullen fine-tunes the style, and the 2002 - the product of extremely low yields and a cool year - is, along with the 1997, the best Cullen chardonnay yet. Delicate citrus and stone-fruit aromas, along with some vanilla from well-handled and new French oak, lead onto a palate that has considerable concentration and length. Equally, the palate has finesse and superb acidity ensuring that this wine will continue to improve for many years to come."

The Penguin Good Australian Wine Guide
Ralph Kyte-Powell and Huon Hooke

As usual, at two years of age this is still a shy, undeveloped chardonnay. This year a portion has screw-cap to help keep it even fresher, but it has the makings of a very fine wine given a little time in bottle. It really is very subtle: citrus and light-honeyed melon fruit, interwoven with lightly nutty, creamy elements, and dressed up in carefully measured spicy oak. The palate is middling in body, long finishing and deliciously appetising. Try it with grilled Western Australia marron.