Cullen

In one of my introductory posts, I said I would make less use of food categories to describe wine and that I liked the 'masculine' and 'feminine' descriptors used by the French. As it turned out, I did not follow my intentions and described the wines in typical Aussie style, although not to the extreme of, say, Tim White from the Fin Review.

Tasting the range of Cullen wines brings me back to my original intentions. These wines are feminine, elegant, well rounded, smooth finish. I don't think this has necessarily to do with the female wine maker dynasty there, but may have to do with biodynamic principles. There is a certain floral and wholesome element, which reflects the soil, I think.

I tasted two SBS's, one unoaked, one barrel fermented, the second label Cabernet Merlot and the Mangan, a Merlot/Petit Verdot/Malbec blend. The last wine gave me a first taste of reds of the much lauded 2007 vintage, and it is an excellent drink. The blend is unusual, but the fleshiness of the Merlot is balanced by the grittyness of the Malbec. The fruit is very concentrated, but does not feel extracted, and the wine comes together well at the end.

Although I did not try the leading wines on this occasion, it is a pleasure to taste wines from this first class winery.