This is the best Australian chardonnay I’ve had. Numbers nuts might like to know its vital statistics are pH 3; natural acid 10g./I; harvested on a full moon fruit day and fermented dry as the Valley of Bones at 13.5 per cent. It is unlike any chardonnay I’ve tasted before. Pepper, ginger, lemon and wet coffee-rock aromas sort of slice at you from the glass. It’s as rapier stiff as any riesling, with an authority and weight that are a formidable, confronting delight. Grown and made biodynamically by Vanya Cullen, it manages both force and finesse in transfixing harmony. And it will live for many years. Philip White, The Independent Weekly, 19 June 2009
Kevin Cullen was a passionate believer in the quality of Margaret River as a wine region and particularly of its potential to become one of the great areas for both Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon. He thus created the Cullen Wines International Chardonnay Tasting, now in its twenty third year, to enable the wines from Margaret River to be compared with the great Chardonnays produced in other prime locations elsewhere in the world. Kevin felt that the lessons learnt from these comparisons would help Cullen Wines optimise the quality of the excellent Chardonnay fruit that was grown on their vineyards. Cullen Wines have decided to recognise Kevin’s pioneering contribution to the elevation of its Chardonnay to prime status by naming this wine the "Kevin John" and thereby form a formidable twin with the Diana Madeline, the Cabernet Sauvignon blend named in honour of his wife.
The Chardonnay in 2007 was picked at ideal physiological ripeness, with sugar levels ranging from 12.0 to 13.2° Baumé. The acid levels were outstanding, with the pH being only 3 and the acid at 10g per litre, and thus no acid adjustment was required. The fruit was harvested around a full moon on fruit days in accordance with the best biodynamic practices and then was whole bunch pressed. The juice was transferred directly into French oak barrels, where the wine was matured for 10 months. The quality of this wine demonstrates that 2007 was a very good vintage for white wines as well as for red wines at Cullen.
