Cullen – ‘Vanya’ Legacy Series Dinner
Vanya Cullen (OAM) of
launches the
Kevin John Chardonnay 2025 &
Diana Madeline Cabernet Merlot 2024
… with a 5x Chardonnay KJ Vertical 2003-2025
… and a 6x Vanya Cabernet Vertical, 2012-2023
Over a 15 wine “All Star” Cullen lineup & 4 Course Dinner
“One of the very few chances to ever taste equivalent Cullen verticals.”
- JJ (Johnn Jens)
The rare museum-release verticals:
Kevin John Chardonnay
– 2025 (Launch) | 2024 | 2018 | 2015 | 2003
Cullen Vanya Cabernet
- 2023 | 2022 | 2019 | 2017 | 2015 | 2012
Plus, two more of Margaret River’s great wines …
Cullen Legacy Series Flower Day Chardonnay 2024
Cullen Legacy Series MOSH Cabernet Sauvignon 2023
Sunday, May 31st
‘Vanya’ Legacy Series Dinner
The official release of Kevin John Chardonnay 2025 and Diana Madeline Cabernet Sauvignon 2024, presented alongside a rare 5-vintage vertical of the “KJ” Chardonnay and 6 of Cullen’s rare Vanya Cabernet Sauvignons.
15 wines in total, featuring five 99-point releases. Hosted by Halliday Winemaker of the Year (2020) and Viticulturist of the Year (2022), Vanya Cullen (OAM).
Hosted by Vanya Cullen (OAM)
Dinner: 6.30-9.30pm, 15 Wines & 4 Courses, $550
Limited to 14 seats
——————
Additional Cullen Event Sittings
Lunch: 12–3pm 14 wines and 4 courses | $195
Masterclass: 4–6pm | 14 wines & canapes | $95
The Cullen ‘Vanya’ Series
Cabernet Sauvignon
The Vanya is Cullen's flagship red - a wine made only in exceptional vintages from the oldest vines on the estate, planted in 1971. Named for Vanya Cullen herself, it represents the purest expression of what Wilyabrup cabernet sauvignon can achieve: biodynamically farmed, wild fermented in beeswax-lined terracotta amphorae, unfined and unfiltered, and produced in tiny quantities rarely exceeding a few hundred dozen.
Since its debut in 2012, the Vanya has drawn comparisons with the world's greatest cabernets. Tonight's five-vintage vertical — spanning over a decade of winemaking — traces the evolution of this extraordinary wine across some of Margaret River's finest seasons, from the benchmark 2012 that announced its arrival with 99 points from James Halliday, through to the 2023 Flower Day which Andrew Caillard MW calls one of the finest Cabernets ever made in this country.
About Cullen’s Wines…
A Track Record of Exceptional Critical RatingsCullen’s flagship wines have an extraordinary track record of critical success, including multiple Halliday #1 rankings for Diana Madeline and consistent 98 point scores across vintages.
Margaret River itself dominates Australian wine shows, winning 78% of all Capital City Cabernet trophies and 65% of Chardonnay trophies in the past decade.
—————
Cullen Kevin John Chardonnay 2025 &
Diana Madeline Cabernet Sauvignon 2024
arrive with serious pedigree…
James Halliday’s Cabernet Sauvignons of the Year with both the 2012 and 2015 Vintages.
The Saturday Australian’s Top 100 2024’s single highest pointed wine, the Vanya 2022, 99 points Huon Hooke’s Real Review Chardonnay of the Year,
Nick Stock’s equal highest pointed (99pts)and equal 3rd highest Margaret Wines in his 2021/2 500 Wine Margaret River tasting, …
Chuck in Robert Parker’s highest rated Australian Cabernet – in about 2019 - at the time, since 2006,
John Jens’ 2 of 4 highest pointed Margaret River Cabernets ever and … his equal highest pointed Australian
Chardonnay ever – and 4 in his top 15.
Some years ago Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate had awarded Cullen four of the nine highest-scoring Australian Chardonnays at the time
About Vanya Cullen OAM
Vanya Cullen Recipient of the Order of Australia (OAM) 2023 for services to oenology & viticulture.
Vanya Cullen Awarded the 2024 Jack Mann Memorial Medal for outstanding contributions to the Western Australian Wine Industry.
After winning major awards around the country and the world, Vanya was finally awarded this prestigious recognition, in front of 400+ guests in her home state of WA – by former Governor and JMM Medal Custodian, Dr Ken Michael.
The James Halliday Wine Companion’s
Winemaker of the Year 2020…
& 2022 Viticulturist of the Year.
Gourmet Traveller Wine Magazine’s
Winemaker of the Year in 2000
Australian Women in Wine
Winemaker of the year 2019,
The Wine List & Menu
First Course
Cullen Kevin John Chardonnay 2025, Our Price $177
Pale colour. Fresh grapefruit, nougat, vanilla, roasted almond aromas with hints of lime. Beautifully balanced and classical in structure with ample grapefruit, lemon curd, lime flavours, fine slinky textures, lovely mid-palate creaminess, underlying marzipan, roasted cashew notes and fresh long saline/supple acidity. Builds up chalky/ al dente at the finish with persistent minerally notes. Delicious to drink with superb purity and flow.
97 Points, Andrew Caillard MW, The Vintage Journal
96+ Points, Erin Larkin, Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate (January 2026)
Cullen Kevin John Chardonnay 2024, Our Price $177
Absolutely stunning. Complex, tightly wound and intense aromas of lemon peel, flint and crushed river stones with curry leaves, kaffir limes, white orchard fruit and salted nuts. The profound palate balances power and delicacy, supported by persistent, multidimensional acidity and structure. Iconic, made under unprecedented climatic conditions from the hottest, driest and earliest vintage in Margaret River. An excellent, unique and near-perfect chardonnay. One for the ages...
98 Points, James Suckling, JamesSuckling.com (July 2025)
98 Points, Ray Jordan, RayJordanWine.com.au
96 Points, Huon Hooke, TheRealReview.com (April 2025)
97 Points, Ken Gargett, Winepilot (May 2025)
97 Points, Cassandra Charlick, Decanter (April 2025)
Haloumi, pea pesto, warm sourdough toast
Second Course
Cullen Legacy Series Flower Day Chardonnay 2024, Our Price $345
Pure magic. Complex and expressive aromas of preserved lemons, struck match, honeysuckle and beeswax with salted nuts, flint, orange blossoms and pastry. Long, compact palate with a mineral drive. Electric acidity, phenolic tension and structure bring this wine into perfect harmony. Whole-bunch carbonic maceration in beeswax-lined amphorae. Chardonnay perfection…
99 Points, James Suckling, jamessuckling.com (July 2025)
98 Points, Andrew Caillard MW, The Vintage Journal (Margaret River 2026)
Cullen Kevin John Chardonnay 2018, Our Price $218
Bright, medium to full yellow colour. A very complex bouquet of candlewax, beeswax, oatmeal and smoky-toasty cashew nut and roasted almond. Grapefruit and other citrus flavours in the mouth. The wine is beautifully intense and complex, restrained and refined as well as concentrated and elegant, the long-lasting finish showing great balance and harmony. An absorbing wine of great bouquet and flavour, with the full array of chardonnay complexities. The aftertaste seems never-ending.
98 points, Huon Hooke, The Real Review
98 Points, James Suckling, jamessuckling.com (March 2025)
18/20 Points, Julia Harding MW, JancisRobinson.com, (June 2025)
97 points, James Halliday, Halliday Wine Companion (June 2021)
96 Points, Erin Larkin, Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate (March 2025)
96 Points, Sarah Ahmed, Decanter (June 2020)
96 Points, Gary Walsh, WineFront.com.au (March 2020)
Cullen Kevin John Chardonnay 2015, Our Price $218
Light to medium straw yellow colour with a nutty, lightly toasty bouquet which features judicious oak and there are lemon, grapefruit, citrus aromas combined with the straw, lightly toasted nuts, especially almond. The palate is intense and fresh, lively and tense with bright acidity driving its flavours along a taut, compact palate, which is dry and savoury and finishes very long in the mouth. A superb chardonnay which is just an infant and will richly reward even short-term cellaring.
97 points, Huon Hooke, The Real Review
97 Points, Erin Larkin, Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate (March 2025)
97 points, James Halliday, Halliday Wine Companion (June 2021)
96 Points, Sarah Ahmed, Decanter (November 2018)
96 Points, Gary Walsh, WineFront.com.au (February 2017)
Cullen Kevin John Chardonnay 2003, Not available for sale
Grilled prawns, Nduja butter
Third Course
Cullen Diana Madeline Cabernet Sauvignon 2024, Our Price $158
Medium deep crimson. Pure cassis, blackberry pastille aromas with roasted chestnut, vanilla notes. A touch of bush garrigue. Finely structured wine with ample blackcurrant, leafy flavours, bitter-sweet tannins, very attractive mid-palate volume and well-integrated roasted chestnut, vanilla. Builds up chocolaty firm at the finish with persistent dark berry fruits and underlying torque. Amazing length of flavour. Still in its elemental phase but will develop into a classic, if not reference Wilyabrup Cabernets. 14 months maturation in 50% new ‘biodynamic’ oak, puncheons and barriques. A lovely vintage.
97 Points, Andrew Caillard MW, The Vintage Journal
95 Points, Erin Larkin, Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate (January 2026)
Cullen Legacy Series MOSH Cabernet Sauvignon 2023, Our Price $345
…I would never argue with anyone who went the extra point, but my concern is that when Vanya tops these, as she surely will, where do you go? …The grapes were harvested under a full moon on 7th March, Moon Opposite Saturn Harvest, hence the MOSH. Maturation was for fifteen months in barriques, one-third of them new. Black purple in colour, the nose weaves its way through aromas of spices, mulberries, florals, blackberries, bruised plums, leather, dried herbs, charcuterie and spices. There is a hint of toasty oak still evident, but integration is proceeding well and all the wine needs is time. Seductively textured, there is wonderful length here and the wine is immaculately balanced throughout. It finishes with the finest of silky tannins. A stunning Cabernet which will drink beautifully for the next quarter of a century.
99 Points, Andrew Caillard MW, The Vintage Journal (Margaret River 2026)
The 2023 Legacy Diana Madeline Full Moon MOSH is an extraordinary wine. Never mind the great vintage from whence it hailed, never mind the hand-in-glove fit of Margaret River and the Cabernet-Malbec blend... This is a convergence of the two plus something extra to create something magic. This is a wine that looked sensational—even more so—the day after (this is not the first time I have tasted this wine, although for the life of me, I cannot find the note?), so if you are so inclined to drink this in its youth, the advice is to decant it, or consume abstemiously and save for the second day. This is an unreal wine. The tannins have a chewy, open-weave, grounded feeling to them, making this easy and complex at once. "Effortless" is perhaps a better word…
98+ Points, Erin Larkin, Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate (January 2026)
98 Points, Huon Hooke, TheRealReview.com (November 2025)
Chicken Bisteya, labne
Fourth Course
Cullen Vanya Cabernet Sauvignon 2023, Our Price $895
…Very classical in structure with wonderful definition and volume. Move over Pauillac!
99 Points, Andrew Caillard MW, The Vintage Journal (November 2025)
A wine of extraordinary depth and concentration, yet with a vibrancy and an almost electrical energy, brings an incandescence to the palate. Masses of black fruits, with lifted florals and perfumed violet nuances. There’s a deep saturation of fruit held with neatly aligned tannins and, of course, that oak which comes from biodynamic puncheons. Balanced & poised with typical Cullen polish and refinement. Elevates this wine into rarefied air.
99 Points, Ray Jordan, RayJordanWine.com.au
2022 Cullen Vanya Cabernet Sauvignon
In any given year, when several thousand bottles are drained in the service of work and the pursuit of pleasure, I’ll consider myself blessed if I find a couple that pass across the palate and settle in my soul. This was one of them. It is cabernet at its most ethereal, a wine that somehow manages to be both minutely detailed and utterly singular at once. It can make a grown man cry. Trust me, I know.
99 points, Nick Ryan, The Australian (The Best Australian Reds 2024)
Cullen Vanya Cabernet Sauvignon 2019, Our Price $895
The 2019 Vanya Cabernet Sauvignon spent only 10 days on the skins, by virtue of the cooler vintage. The purity of the wine is a wonderful thing; it's gossamer-fine, and the frame is ultra-fine, almost ethereal. There are notes of sweet tobacco, cassis, gentian and blue fruits, and the tannins are chalky, truly lovely.
97 points, Erin Larkin, Robert Parker's Wine Advocate (March 2025)
97 Points, Gary Walsh, WineFront.com.au (August 2025)
96 Points, James Suckling, jamessuckling.com (October 2022)
Cullen Vanya Cabernet Sauvignon 2017, Our Price $895
The 2017 Vanya Cabernet Sauvignon hails from a cool and wet vintage here in Margaret River, and the wine today is typically fine-boned and ethereal, albeit also showing some attractive signs of tertiary development. This is a wine that I delight in slotting into blind brackets of Bordeaux, as it shows an extraordinary ability to carve a new definition of delicacy, complexity and regional eloquence into any tasting. This is an unfettered Cabernet Sauvignon.
97 points, Erin Larkin, Robert Parker's Wine Advocate (January 2026)
Cullen Vanya Cabernet Sauvignon 2015, Our Price $895
Best Cabernet Sauvignon of the Year, 2019 Halliday Wine Companion
…This is a truly beautiful and graceful cabernet. Its purity of varietal fruit expression, its perfect fruit/oak/tannin balance and its length are exceptional.
99 points, James Halliday, Halliday Wine Companion (June 2021)
99 Points, Huon Hooke, TheRealReview.com (July 2025)
97+ Points, Mike Bennie, WineFront.com.au (January 2018)
97 Points, James Suckling, jamessuckling.com (December 2021)
Cullen Vanya Cabernet Sauvignon 2012, Our Price $895
Best Cabernet Sauvignon of the Year, 2017 Halliday Wine Companion
An extraordinary wine from the oldest ('71) estate plantings…
99 points, James Halliday, Halliday Wine Companion (June 2021)
98 Points, Huon Hooke, TheRealReview.com (July 2025)
…A delicious wine, already drinking superbly. The wine has great concentration and precision ripeness, but is not a blockbuster, nor is it overtly oaky. It's all about elegance and balance.
98 Points, Huon Hooke, TheRealReview.com (April 2016)
97 Points, Gary Walsh, WineFront.com.au (December 2015)
96 points, Erin Larkin, Robert Parker's Wine Advocate (March 2025)
96 Points, James Suckling, jamessuckling.com (January 2017)
Twice cooked lamb, petite ratatouille
To finish…
Cullen Late Harvest Chenin Blanc 2024
Saffron poached pear, cream, pistachio praline
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