MATTHEW JUKES: 100 BEST AUSTRALIAN WINES 2013/14
Wine Judge and journalist Matthew Jukes names 2010 Diana Madeline in the Top 100 Wines for 2013, and Cullen Wines 11 in the Top 40 Australian Wineries of the last 10 Years.
Welcome to my 100 Best Australian Wines list for 2013/14. As always, this century of greats is the result of exhaustive tastings held in the UK and Australia over the last twelve months. It represents the finest one hundred Australian wines available on the shelves in the UK for the coming year. It is designed as a balanced list of wines including sparklers, all styles of whites and reds, sweet and fortified wines. I endeavour to cover all price points and as many regions as possible in an effort to give you a complete Australian ‘wine list’ for the next twelve month’s worth of entertaining, cellar-stocking and championing.
Looking back over the last ten years I have compiled a list of my TOP FORTY WINERIES in order of the number of listings in the 100 Best since 2004.
11. CULLEN WINES
The 2012 Mangan Vineyard Semillon / Sauvignon Blanc is the finest release of its kind in years. Unfortunately 2010 Kevin John Chardonnay is perpetually sold out, which is a travesty because it is one of the finest white wines in the world. Both of these wines are seriously high quality beings and for this reason, and also my featured red, this estate is another to gain a place in my ‘100 Most Iconic Wines’ book. 2010 Diana Madeline is only one half of a point out of twenty off a perfect wine. I feel a little tight typing this but I know that another 20/20 will be achieved at this estate soon. This wine is stupendous in every way. The nose is orchestral with thousands of layers of sublime fruit, earth and wood nuances all swirling around. The palate is surprisingly juicy and appealing in spite of its youth and the oak notes and tannins are embedded into the centre of the flavour as opposed to their usual position of exoskeleton. This serves to make the wine impossibly attractive already. All in all, this is a wine that will live for twenty years with ease, but its epic balance is already tempting people to open it, which is a travesty.
Please exercise some restraint because this is one of Australia’s truly iconic red wines
Taken from Page 23/24, 100 Best Australian Wines 2013/14 by Matthew Jukes
With over 9 million Daily Mail readers a week, Matthew has the most keenly followed wine column in the UK. He also writes a weekly piece for MoneyWeek and occasional articles for The Week.