This wine is all about perfume, flowers and a kiss of sun-touched fruit that makes it utterly enticing. Aromas of jasmine, apple blossoms, rose petals, melon and grapefruit. The textural, structured palate comes from 12 hours on the skins before pressing. So complex with mineral and stone-driven notes and an underlying power that will evolve gracefully. From biodynamically grown grapes. Excellent.
95 POINTS
Ken Gargett - Winepilot
This is the prestige Sauv Blanc and Sem blend in the Cullens range and it drinks like it. Named in honour of Diana Madeline’s mother, Vanya’s other grandmother, the vines were planted in 1976 and the wine is a blend of 85% Sauvignon Blanc and 15% Semillon. The Semillon was tank fermented but the Savvy saw eight months in barriques, 63% of them new, after both barrel and concrete egg fermentation with wild yeasts. Deep straw in colour, this is Savvy with complexity. Entirely possible we have the power of suggestion here, but it is a wine of grace. There is oak evident, but it is finely integrated. There are tropical notes with peach, fig and florals. A seamless style of great refinement and serious length. Enjoy this any time over the next six to eight years. A superb example of the style.
95 POINTS
Jane Faulkner - Halliday Wine Companion
It’s always a classy wine, a serious iteration of SBS forfeiting tropical fruit for texture, a light thread of phenolics, smoky/cedary/spicy oak and some funky flint. It’s all about the palate really, although there are plenty of citrus flavours – think grapefruit, Meyer lemon and pomelo. It’s ready now but this will only build more complexity in time.
95 POINTS
Cassandra Charlick - Decanter
This white Bordeaux blend is one of the hallmarks of the Margaret River wine region, and Cullen has produced an ageworthy iteration since its earliest days. Named after Diana Madeline’s mother, this is abundant with lemon blossom, coriander stalk, pea shoot, a little crushed nutmeg, cedar dust and apricot kernel. The palate is silken and complete, oak adding a textural weave to the plump and full-flavoured fruit, but also a glossy, delicate frankincense perfume. There is plenty of enjoyment and refreshment right now, but there’s also reward ahead, maturing to nutty and tertiary complexity, for those who wait. A blend of 85% Sauvignon Blanc and 15% Semillon, with the Sauvignon Blanc component matured in 63% new oak for eight months.
Named in honour of Diana Madeline’s mother. This is about 85% sauvignon blanc and 15% semillon. About 63% of the savvy is matured in new French oak for 8 months. A very hot year, but the fruit has been handled well. It has good lively concentration with a tight rein on the palate from the oak and acid. Has a creamy middle palate with lively stone fruit and citrus and a minerally fine length.
94 POINTS
Gary Walsh - The Wine Front
We seem to have missed 2021, 2022, 2023, but here we are with 2024. This is 85% Sauvignon Blanc and 15% Semillon with 63% new French oak.
It’s an engaging wine and one that’s full of personality. Citrus, dried mango, ginger biscuits, fennel and floral things, a bit like Chinese tea, lots of spice. It has a good burst of flavour, again a layer of spice, ripe lime and pear, fine chalky grip, something a little nutty and sake-like here, honey vanilla florals, and the finish is long and layered. Distinctive and very good. Lovely now, though likely better in a year or two.
92 POINTS
Erin Larkin - Robert Parker Wine Advocate
The 2024 Grace Madeline comprises a blend of Sauvignon Blanc (85%) and Semillon (15%), planted on their own roots in 1976 on the Cullen estate in Wilyabrup in Margaret River. Aromatically, the wine speaks more of its élevage than varieties, with creamy vanilla pod, toasted nuts and exotic spices whirling out of the glass. The fruit behind is laden with kiwi fruit and guava, green apple and lemon curd, resin and cypress. The wine was matured in French oak (63% new) for eight months, and at this early stage in its evolution, this really shows. The length of flavor is, as expected, very good. However, for now, the oak obscures the fruit, and I look forward to a time when this subsides. There's lovely acid in the mouth and chalky phenolics. Have patience. 13% alcohol, sealed under screw cap.
