Vanya Cullen presents Cullen’s New Releases:
2025 Kevin John & 2024 Diana Madeline Launch
The Legacy Dinner
A 13 wine and 4 course dinner featuring
6 vintages of the Kevin John Chardonnay, including 4 museum releases…
2025 (New Release) | 2024 | 2018 | 2015 | 2003
&
a 5 vintage vertical of the Cullen Vanya Cabernet
2023 | 2019 | 2017 | 2015 | 2012
Cullen Legacy Dinner:
Kevin John, Diana Madeline & Vanya Cabernet Vertical
Sunday, May 31st
Hosted by Vanya Cullen!
Dinner: 6.30pm 13 wines & 4 courses | $550
(Dinner is held in the Lamont’s Private Dining Room | 14 seats)
The Lunch and Masterclass Details
Lunch: 12–3pm 12 wines and 4 courses | $295
Masterclass: 4–6pm | 12 wines & canapes | $195
See the lunch and masterclass event page here.
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One of the first wineries to be established in the famous Wilyabrup wine growing region of Margaret River, Western Australia. In 1971, Dr Kevin Cullen and his wife Diana planted and nurtured what has become one of Australia’s finest and most well-respected wineries.
Cullen Wines has remained a family business, and the care and respect that Kevin and Di showed for the land and their passion for producing quality wines ins a legacy that continues today. In 1998, the winery was successfully converted to organic practices and in 2004. Since taking the reins several years ago, Vanya Cullen’s passion and hard work has paved the way for the business to become a fully certified A Grade biodynamic winery and the first winery in Australia to be certified 100% carbon neutral.
Cullen Wines’ flagships, the Diana Madeline Cabernet blend and the Kevin John Chardonnay, are consistently rated nationally and internationally as the best in their respective fields. Cullen’s natural and biodynamic wines bring the purest expression of place and land on which they are grown.
A pioneer of Margaret River, Cullen Wines has always produced long-lived wines of highly individual style. The vineyard has progressed beyond organic to biodynamic certification and, subsequently, has become the first vineyard and winery in Australia to be certified carbon positive. Winemaking is in the hands of Vanya Cullen, daughter of founders Kevin and Diana Cullen; she is possessed of an extraordinarily good palate and generosity to the cause of fine wine. Vanya was awarded the Companion's inaugural Viticulturist of the Year in '22, Cullen's 50th anniversary year.
James Halliday, Wine Companion -
Vanya Cullen is one of Australia’s most awarded and respected winemakers. Her lifelong commitment to biodynamics, sustainability and uncompromising quality has earned her national and international recognition.
Major Honours
Order of Australia (OAM), 2023
Awarded for outstanding service to oenology and viticulture — a national honour recognising her leadership and contribution to Australian wine.Jack Mann Memorial Medal, 2024
Western Australia’s highest wine industry accolade, recognising exceptional and lasting service to the state’s wine community.
Industry Awards
James Halliday Wine Companion
• Winemaker of the Year, 2020
• Viticulturist of the Year, 2022
A rare dual recognition highlighting both her vineyard innovation and winemaking excellence.Gourmet Traveller WINE – Winemaker of the Year, 2000
One of the earliest national acknowledgements of Vanya’s visionary influence.Australian Women in Wine Awards – Winemaker of the Year, 2019
Celebrating trailblazing women shaping the industry.
Additional Achievements
Inducted into the Australian Business Women’s Hall of Fame, 2015
Recognised for entrepreneurial leadership and influence beyond the wine sector.Named Woman of the Year & Green Personality of the Year
Awarded by The Drinks Business (UK) for her sustainability leadership and global impact (year not specified).Margaret River Wine Association – Lifetime Achievement Award, 2025
Honouring her decades of contribution to the region’s international reputation.Finalist – The Real Review “Vigneron of the Year Australia”, 2025
Acknowledging her pioneering approach to biodynamic viticulture.
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Cullen Awards and Accolades
Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate’s
4 of their highest 9 pointed Australian Chardonnays ever at the time.James Halliday’s Cabernet Sauvignons of the Year 2012 and 2015.
Huon Hooke’s Real Review Chardonnay of the Year 2021.
Nick Stock’s equal highest pointed (99pts) highest Margaret Wines in his 2021 - at the 500 Wine Margaret tasting.
Robert Parker’s highest rated Australian Cabernet - in 2019 .
Vanya Cullen
The Real Review’s Top Wineries 2025 Awards- Vigneron of the Year 2025 Top 3 Finalist
The James Halliday Wine Companion’s - Winemaker of the Year 2020, & 2022 Viticulturist of the Year.
Gourmet Traveler WINE magazine’s - Winemaker of the Year in 2000.
Australian Women in Wine - Winemaker of the year 2019
The ‘Vanya’ Cabernet Sauvignon
The Vanya is Cullen's pinnacle 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.
The New Releases
2025 Kevin John Chardonnay
Pale colour. Fresh grapefruit, nougat, vanilla, roasted almond aromas with hints of limes. 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. Seven months maturation in 50% puncheons. Drink now – 2035+ 13.5% alc.
97 Points - Andrew Caillard MW
2024 Diana Madeline
What style of wizardry is this? Tasted blind you could easily mistake this for one of the stellar left bank cabernet-driven red blends of Bordeaux…This benchmark comes from the earliest, driest, and hottest vintage on record in Margaret River, but the biodynamic, dry-grown vines sailed through the test.
98 points - Winsor Dobbin
The Legacy Dinner
Menu & Wine List
First Course
2025 Cullen Kevin John Chardonnay
Pale colour. Fresh grapefruit, nougat, vanilla, roasted almond aromas with hints of limes. 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. Seven months maturation in 50% puncheons. Drink now – 2035+ 13.5% alc.
97 Points - Andrew Caillard MW
2024 Cullen Kevin John Chardonnay
It was a hot, dry and early vintage. The earliest on record. But the impact on the wine is immediate and profound. A wine of tremendous power and concentration is evident from the initial engagement on the nose through to a deep and almost endless palate, as it drives forward with tremendous urgency. Notes of brioche and grain-like cereal with a slightly honeycomb factor, with other notes of minerals and slight savoriness. The palate is deeply concentrated with layers of flavour emerging. Captures much of the Kevin John DNA.
98 points, Ray Jordan, WA Wine Review
2024 Cullen Legacy Flower Day Chardonnay
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. Drink or hold. 600 bottles produced. Screw cap.
99 Points - James Suckling, jamessuckling.com
Haloumi, pea pesto, warm sourdough toast
Second Course
2018 Cullen Kevin John Chardonnay
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
2015 Cullen Kevin John Chardonnay
Light to medium straw yellow colour with a nutty, lightly toasty bouquet which features judicious oak and there are lemon, grapefruit, citrus aromas combined 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.
98 points, Huon Hooke, The Real Review
2003 Cullen Kevin John Chardonnay
Grilled prawns, Nduja butter
Third Course
2024 Cullen Diana Madeline Cabernet Sauvignon
the stellar left bank cabernet-driven red blends of Bordeaux…This benchmark comes from the earliest, driest, and hottest vintage on record in Margaret River, but the biodynamic, dry-grown vines sailed through the test.
98 points - Winsor Dobbin
2023 Cullen Legacy Series MOSH Cabernet Sauvignon
Not many wineries can claim to have three flagship reds, but for Cullens, not a problem. As well as the standard Diana Madeline, not that there is anything standard about it, we have this wine and then the Vanya. All three were produced in the wonderful 2023 vintage. Obviously, the Diana Madeline is the value play, but the three wines are all different and all spectacular. They each have so much to offer that I couldn't split them and gave them each 99. The blend here is 70% Cabernet Sauvignon and 30% Malbec. 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. 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
2023 Cullen Vanya Cabernet Sauvignon
Put simply, this has to be one of the finest Cabernets ever made in this country. 100% Cabernet Sauvignon, picked on a flower day and then naturally fermented on skins in 300-litre terracotta amphorae for almost a month, before transferring to barrels for a further six months' maturation, with 50% of the barrels new. 526 bottles made. Dark maroon. The nose has notes of spices, chocolate, mocha, coffee beans, cassis, smoked meats and liqueur cherries. There is focus, energy, and great length through to near invisible silky tannins. The finish lingers gently, as does the memory of the wine. It is so plush and generous and so superbly balanced that it is utterly compelling. It will see twenty to thirty years in the cellar as a doddle.
99 points, Andrew Caillard MW, The Vintage Journal
Chicken Bisteya, labne
Fourth Course
2019 Cullen Vanya Cabernet Sauvignon
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
2017 Cullen Vanya Cabernet Sauvignon
Hand-picked, wild-fermented in terracotta amphorae, then pressed to French barriques (66% new) for a further 6 months. The small berries of a quasi-drought summer might have imposed awkward tannins, but the medium-bodied palate is so perfectly balanced it has a drinking span of 30 years and counting.
98 points, James Halliday, Halliday Wine Companion
2015 Cullen Vanya Cabernet Sauvignon
Not a hiccup to be found in this wonderfully seamless wine, which maintains its intensity throughout. There is no real evidence of oak to be found, and it offers an almost surreal complexity. The wine reflects the finesse of the 2015 vintage. This wine has legitimate claims on the title of most elegant wine ever made in Australia.
99 points, Ken Gargett, Wine Pilot
2012 Cullen Vanya Cabernet Sauvignon
An extraordinary wine from the oldest ('71) estate plantings, wild-fermented, matured for 19 months in French oak (47% new). Deeply coloured, highly fragrant, the palate takes you on a mesmerising ride with a mid-palate peak of pure, unalloyed cassis fruit, then a swish of integrated savoury tannins before rising again on the dark fruit line of the finish. Drink to 2057.
99 points, James Halliday, Halliday Wine Companion
Twice cooked lamb, petite ratatouille
To Finish…
2025 Late Harvest Chenin Blanc