Margaret River Vintage Vertical Series 2:
Cullen, Xanadu, & Pierro
Decanter claims “Western Australia’s Margaret River is home to some of the world’s finest Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon”… and we agree!
Our second tasting in our Margaret River Mini Series, explores eight wines, from three producers, across six vintages…at one relaxed tasting! Taste 3 mini verticals and compare how Margaret River Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon have evolved over time.
8 Margaret River wines including…
3x Pierro Chardonnays: 2024 | 2019 | 2014
“Pierro is a signature Margaret River estate known for some of the finest, most complete and balanced chardonnay in wine's New World.”
- Jeremy Oliver, Oliver’s Wines
3x Xanadu Black Label Cabernet: 2019 | 2016 | 2010
Xanadu has won the 9 most recent Best Cabernet Sauvignon Trophies at Canberra,
our most prestigious and National Wine Show, and 10 of the past 11!
Against the entire country …On top of that Glenn Goodall, the chief winemaker & his team have have tallied up an unbelievable 339 gold medals and 127 trophies across regional and national wine shows.
3x Cullen Diana Madeline: 2012 | 2007 | 2004
“Pitch perfect Margaret River Cabernet. A wine for Australia to be proud of.”
- Gary walsh on the 2012 Diana Madeline.
"…a long-term vintage of this wine, which is ageing superbly.”
98 Points - Huon Hooke, The Real Review 09 Apr 2024 … on the 2004 Diana Madeline
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Saturday, January 24th
Margaret River Vintage Vertical Series 2: Cullen, Xanadu, & Pierro
Tasting: 2pm - 3.30pm, 8 Wines and Nibbles | $145.00
[Limited to 15 Pax.]
Recent judging visits to Margaret River by leading international wine judges have weighed in and reinforced: that this is a region operating at an elite level. International Wine & Spirits Competition global judge Melania Battiston and Sarah Abbot MW, shared their thoughts on the region.
“We are now ambassadors of this region after this trip. It is our duty to communicate how refined these wines are, to source them, to place them on our lists, and to spread the word of Margaret River.”
- Melania Battiston, International Wine & Spirits Competition Judge“It’s an exciting and important time to be judging wines in Margaret River, and to be visiting the Great Southern. The wines have been brilliant for years, with some iconic and world-famous producers. But we are now seeing growing appreciation and valuing of the unique personality and elite quality of the region.”
- Sarah Abbot MW, International Wine & Spirits Judging Committee Member
Fellow judge Beth Pearce reinforced the point, describing Margaret River as “almost like an insider secret at the moment in the fine wine world,” recognising not just quality, but the region’s growing global relevance.
Margaret River
Extract from 'Huon Hooke’s ‘Introduction to Margaret River’…
“…It’s a toss-up which variety Margaret River does best: cabernet sauvignon or chardonnay. Cabernet wins if you consider there are relatively few places where cabernet excels. By comparison, chardonnay is a great traveller.
Cabernet wines can be quite leafy in cooler seasons and the less-expensive bottlings. These days, cabernet at the higher quality levels is elegant but seldom shows its greener features, which were evident in many of the earliest Margaret River cabernets that turned heads and won trophies with their highly aromatic style. Today’s cabernets are medium to full-bodied, with tannins that are ripe and supple. One rarely finds over-oaked wines. The preferred clone is probably the Houghton clone, a heritage clone originally sourced from the Houghton Swan Valley vineyard.”
The Producers in Context
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Cullen is an iconic Margaret River winery and the Diana Madeline is their flagship red wine. It is famed for its quality and consistency, is sought after by collectors world-wide and is a worthy regional benchmark. It is a classic Cabernet Sauvignon dominant Bordeaux blend grown on an exemplary vineyard. The Cullen vineyard has been certified both Organic and Biodynamic since 2004.
Vanya Cullen received the "Australian Winemaker of the Year" award from Gourmet Traveller Wine magazine in 2000 and was voted "Woman of the Year" by UK based wine magazine The Drinks Business in 2008, becoming the first Australian to receive the award. Vanya was also awarded Halliday Wine Companion's winemaker of the year in 2020.
Cullen became the first vineyard and winery in Australia to be certified carbon positive, starting the process in 2006. Vanya Cullen is also on the board of the "Days of Change" program, which aims to help Western Australian people and businesses live and operate in a more sustainable way.
2021 marked a half-century for the brand and with it a celebration of the Cullen Wines legacy. "This year we celebrate 50 years of Cullen Wines – 50 years of sustainable wine growing preceded by 65,000 years of Wadandi sustainable land care," says Vanya. "Over that time we've been supported by generous people with a wonderful spirit of camaraderie and warmth of spirit, and we are so grateful."
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From Xanadu:
Xanadu Reigns as Australia’s Best Cabernet at the National Wine Show of Australia.
Our renowned family-run winery, proudly announces its remarkable achievement of securing the Cabernet Sauvignon Trophy at the National Wine Show of Australia for an unprecedented ninth consecutive year. The trophy was awarded to the 2019 Xanadu Cabernet Sauvignon, reinforcing Xanadu’s dominance in producing Australia’s finest Cabernet Sauvignon.
This brings Xanadu’s trophy number to 136, of that, Xanadu’s Cabernet Sauvignon wines have won a staggering 68 trophies and 168 gold medals in wine shows since 2007.
From JJ
Xanadu have won:
9 of the past 10 Best Cabernet Trophies at our National Wine Show in Canberra, & The Jimmy Watson Trophy, and multiple Trophies each for
Best SBS Blends, Best Chardonnays of Show, Best White Wines of Show,
Best Rose’s of Show, Best Cabernets of Show and Best Red Wines of Show … & Tysons Stelzer’s
Best Cabernet Sauvignon of the year … and James Halliday’s second ever
99 point Table Wine,
Cabernet Sauvignon of the Year
& Wine of the Year. etc
~These Guys… are one of the 3 great West Australian wineries dominating the 7 Capital City Wine Show Circuit.
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“Pierro is a signature Margaret River estate known for some of the finest, most complete and balanced chardonnay in wine's New World.”
- Jeremy Oliver, Oliver’s Wines
Source: Ray Jordan's Margaret River Region Map
The Wine List
2024 Pierro Chardonnay
From one of Margaret River’s great chardonnay producers, this is yet another brilliant example of the style that has made Pierro so admired. You wouldn’t guess it came from a warm year—it’s delicate and fine, with a pristine brightness. The nose shows light grapefruit, citrus, a touch of butterscotch, and a subtle mealy note in the background. The palate has real zing, with lively, pristine acidity driving through to a sustained finish. A chalky, minerally edge adds to the linear feel and precision. Another outstanding Pierro chardonnay.'
98/100 - Ray Jordan , WA Wine Review 2026
2014 Pierro Chardonnay
Picked over 1 month, hand-sorted, chilled to 5 degrees C, whole bunch-pressed, 90% cultured yeast, 10% wild, primary and mlf in French oak (50% new) with 12 months maturation and stirring. One of the Margaret River princes of chardonnay, with perfect balance and length, the suite of flavours so complex they border on savoury; the length is remarkable.
96/100 - James Halliday, Halliday Wine Companion
2019 Xanadu Black Label Cabernet Sauvignon
With 5/4% malbec/petit verdot. Fruit from Wilyabrup, Wallcliffe, Treeton and Yallingup. 14 months in oak (40% new). Scintillatingly pure and taut, this is elegant, supple cabernet at its finest. Garden mint and purple fruit dominates; the length of flavour an enduring ripple on a still lake. Brilliant stuff, even more so given the price and its ability to age gracefully.
96/100 - Erin Larkin, Halliday Wine Companion
2016 Xanadu Black Label Cabernet Sauvignon
The Jimmy Watson Memorial Trophy
Includes 5% malbec and 3% petit verdot, crushed and destemmed, a wine of many components, mainly small batch ferments (static and open fermenters), pumping over and plunging, part extended maceration (4 weeks), matured for 12 months in French oak (40% new). Focused and powerful, the deep but bright colour a come-on. Cassis is given context by cabernet tannins, which are firm, not dry.
95/100 - James Halliday, Halliday Wine Companion
Perfume, baking spice, mint, boysenberry, milk chocolate. Medium-bodied, perfume and dried herbs in a core of red and black fruit, open weave but fine grained tannin, fresh and bright, but with a good amount of bass. Finish is long and well-defined, the tannin lending confident grip as it goes down. Excellent.
95/100 Points - Gary Walsh, The Wine Front
2010 Xanadu Black Label Cabernet Sauvignon
Fermented in small batches, some given extended maceration post-fermentation, then given 14 months in French oak (40% new). The colour is bright and clear, and there is a most appealing nature to the blackcurrant and redcurrant fruit; the oak and tannins are perfectly balanced.
95/100 - Halliday Wine Companion
2012 Cullen Diana Madeline Cabernet Sauvignon
Precise flavours – the cherry and mulberry fruit shot through with powdery tannins and sluicing gravelly ironstone acidity. A lift of dried roses and bitter chocolate bass notes. Exemplary fine-textured tannins make for great line, length and finesse. In an early vintage, the grapes were harvested between 31 January and 11 March. Drinking beautifully now, but with time in hand too. Aged for 18 months in barriques, 38% new.
98/100 Points - Sarah Ahmed, Decanter (at The Petersham, London, 15 Jun 2023)
Hang on to your hats boys and girls, Cullen are back in the game. Those ‘other’ critics may have gone large on what I’d like to call ‘the experimental vintages’ between 2008 and 2011, but trust me, this is the one. It’s hit the sweet spot. The right alcohol. The right ripeness. The righteous. The right stuff. The nexus of Margaret River, Cabernet and Cullen – gone boom. Release July 2014.
Perfect ripeness. Floral perfume, regional seaweed, aniseed and bay leaf, mixed berries – red, black and blue – backed with beautiful mocha and cedar oak. Medium bodied, super fine dense ‘graphite’ tannin – to the tooth – freshness, fruit weight, flavour, elegance and length. All here. Not a hair out of place, and yet, has character and charisma. Vivacious. Not trying too hard. Pitch perfect Margaret River Cabernet. A wine for Australia to be proud of.
97/100 Points - Gary Walsh, The Wine Front
2007 Cullen Diana Madeline Cabernet Sauvignon
One might be sceptical about biodynamics, but not about this glorious wine, an emphatic bounce back to top form; indeed, this is as close to perfection as one can imagine in terms of structure, texture and its complex fruit flavours. Great now, greater still in another 10 years, and who knows how long thereafter. Drink to 2032.
97 points and Top 100 Wines of 2009 - James Halliday, The Weekend Australian
2004 Cullen Diana Madeline Cabernet Sauvignon
A very deeply coloured, concentrated and powerful DM, solid and tannic, still quite youthful and vigorous, a long-term vintage of this wine, which is ageing superbly.
98 Points - Huon Hooke, The Real Review (09 Apr 2024)