Cullen Kevin John Chardonnay 2022

This wine is harvested in Kevin John’s 100th birth year. Harvested from 3 separate Wente clone chardonnay blocks, planted in 1976 and 1988, on their own roots, yielding 1.8 tonnes per hectare. Hand Harvested and fermented in 50% new biodynamic puncheons, where it was left to mature for a further 6 months. 

2022 vintage grew wines of immense perfume and texture. There are aromas of lemon and sea spray mist, lime flowers and kaffir lime, dried pear and fig. Whilst the palate is crunchy vibrant mineral acidity which keeps the flavours, lingering on and on with a back palate of lemon sherbet kicking in to enliven the experience. Dried pear, orange blossom, balance and poise, what a great symphony of flavours coming together all at once on the taste buds.

‘The Chardonnays I have tasted so far from the 2022 vintage in Margaret River remind me of the 2014s, in their soft acidity and primal, almost unbound fruit power. Here, the 2022 Kevin John Chardonnay leads with crushed nuts, salted yellow peach, red apple skins, preserved citrus rind, yuzu, green tea and saltbush, before tumbling into the flavours in the mouth. Toffee apple, nuts, curry leaf and saffron. Concentrated, piercing and intense. The acid envelops the tongue and holds it hostage, while the fruit explodes with power. The Gingin clone is on show here. The wine trails to a soft, juicy finish. It is lingering, very good, excellent, even better after a gentle decant and served in a big Burgundy glass. 13.5% alcohol, sealed under screw cap.’ - 97 Points, Erin Larkin. Robert Parker Wine Advocate

'It's a powerful and dry spicy wine. Lemon peel, cinnamon, clove spice, pear, fresh pineapple, apricot, ripe lime, and roasted peanuts. It's flinty, zesty, with slight oak. Still, the fruit swallows it up and carries on with aniseed, dried pear, lavish spice, tight grapefruity acidity, very intense chamomile and ginger on a finish of superb length. Chalky, spicy, oaky, a whole lot of Chardonnay power here, it's bursting with vitality, and it's pretty full on as a young wine, like staring at the sun. But give it time, and it should reward most handsomely.' - 95+ Points, Gary Walsh. The Wine Front