Cullen Wines Red Blend Diana Madeline 2020 750ml

Diana is a wine built to last the ages. It's expressive now, though, via layers of heady aromas like black currant, blackberry, pencil shaving, briny black olive and spice box. Dusty, fine, sandy-textured tannins cinch the fresh, plummy fruit in the mouth. A tightrope of power and poise. (Cellar Selection)

The 2020 Diana Madeline hails from a vintage that perhaps we underestimate its significance, purely by virtue of the fact that we may be too close to it currently. Similar to the World War years, any wine made in 2020 was done so under trying conditions heretofore not experienced by the global community. Widespread lockdowns, the threat of a then-unknown virus weighing down upon us all, uncertainty rife and mobility greatly restricted, the wines of the 2020 vintage are a triumph in themselves. In Margaret River, the season was warm, dry and early, and it has yielded a tranche of structurally powerful wines, as this is. The tannins here feel firm, and they serve to encase the fruit rather than exist within it, as other Diana Madelines exhibit. It is perhaps a wine that needs more time, and it is certainly a historical vintage to collect—if not for us now, then for our children later. 13.1% alcohol, sealed under screw cap. Cullen Wines supplied the following technical details: The 2020 harvest dates included two moon-opposite-Saturn events and two full moons—one being a fruit day perigee and the other a moon-opposite-Saturn flower day—and took place from February 8 until March 10. The blend is 92% Cabernet Sauvignon, 4% Merlot, 3% Cabernet Franc and 1% Malbec. Closed tanks, open fermenters, barrels and amphora were all used in the fermentation process, and the period of skin contact lasted from 10 to 99 days, depending on the batch of wine. This wine spent 13 months in 50% new oak in a mixture of barriques and puncheons, with some biodynamic oak featuring. No additions of yeast, acid or malolactic acid were made to this wine.

This is bright, layered and gently herbal cabernet-based blend with a deliciously textured array of black fruit, mint chocolate, iodine, olive stones, eucalyptus and bay leaves. Medium-bodied, with firm yet well-integrated tannins. Savory. Creamy and fine at the end. 92% cabernet sauvignon, 4% merlot, 3% cabernet franc and 1% malbec. From biodynamically grown grapes. Drink or hold. Screw cap.

The 2020 Cabernet Sauvignon Diana Madeline is stylish, poised and precise boasting an intense and enticing core of graphite, blackberry, and black olive aromas. Classically structured, there is immense density to the dark, cedary fruit flavour and tannins, with underlying vitality and freshness. A long, tight and sinewy finish bodes well for the future but it clearly needs time to fill out.

This has dense flavors and tannins, but there's also an air of elegance and effortlessness, with velvety wild blackberry, huckleberry and plum notes and accents of spices, tobacco and dried black olive that linger. Cabernet Sauvignon. Drink now through 2030. 100 cases imported.

Colour: Mulberry, velvet cherry, red brick. Bouquet: Rich cherry, chocolate, rose, violet, ironstone, curry leaf. Palate: Juicy rich structure, rich chocolate, mulberry, cherry with beautiful fine grained tannins supporting ethereal fruit with unctuous texture and complexity inviting you back for another taste and glass of this delicious wine. Drinks well now and will last for at least 50 years.