2017 Cullen Wines Chardonnay Kevin John Wilyabrup Margaret River Australia 750 ml

When our Head of Wine Vanessa Conlin arrived with a bottle of this 2017 Cullen Chardonnay, it stole the show like no wine ever before, and the day was shot because we finished off the sample bottle—as well as the second bottle we were supposed to save for the photography department. We couldn’t resist. It’s that good. 

“Always one of Australia's finest Chardonnays,” according to Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate, Cullen has been named a five-star winery, the highest accolade awarded by Australian wine authority James Halliday. This October, Halliday even named winemaker Vayna Cullen his Winemaker of the Year, calling Cullen a “legendary Margaret River winery recognised as one of Australia’s best labels.” 

At our table, Vayna’s 2017 Kevin John Chardonnay was glowing with purity and richness, showing stone fruit, citrus, toast, and cream with a lemon-lime zip and a rich almond-pastry backbone. Wine Spectator’s former European Bureau Chief James Suckling found it “elegant yet concentrated and long” in his 97-point review. 

Vanessa had rediscovered this icon, which is normally sold out in Australia, at Lake Tahoe during a four-day tasting marathon featuring Australia’s finest. “Truth be told, this was my top find of the whole week,” she told us. “It’s one of the best Chardonnays grown anywhere in the world,” she went on, as as we imagined falling head-over-heels for the Cullen’s Kevin John Chardonnay under the bright Tahoe sun. 

In the glass, the ‘17 has the complexity of Grand Cru white Burgundy, the verve of New World Chardonnay, and the mineral signature of Australia’s Margaret River region. Unlike its peers in France and California, however, the Cullen bears a much more appetizing price tag. Historically it’s $100 or more, but we secured 42 cases at $84.99 on six or more bottles of a must-have, iconic Chardonnay from Australia’s top region.   

Cullen, which for the last decade has practiced biodynamic farming, has a grape-growing history rooted in Australian royalty. “On the advice of eminent agronomist Dr John Gladstones,” writes Halliday, “Dr Kevin and Diana Cullen planted a trial acre of vines at Wilyabrup in 1966.” By 1971 they had planted their first vineyard, and what has amounted since is nothing short of extraordinary.   

Kevin John Cullen was one of Australia’s great physicians. His wife, Diana would rise to prominence in the wine world beginning with the major achievement of being the first woman to win a trophy at the Perth Royal Show. Fast-forward a couple of decades, and both were awarded the Order of Australia—Kevin John for his work in medicine and wine, and Diana for her work in viticulture and wine.   

Today, Vanya Cullen, daughter of Diana and Kevin John, is at the helm. Halliday has raved over her peerless winemaking skills: “She is possessed of an extraordinarily good palate. It is impossible to single out any particular wine from the top echelon; all are superb.”

2017 was a particularly good year for Chardonnay, and the grapes taken from the 70-acre Cullen estate vineyard were hand-harvested, whole-bunch pressed, and fermented with wild yeasts in a combination of barriques, amphorae, and ceramic egg casks. Natural malolactic fermentation added richness and depth, and after five months in 30 percent new French oak, the Chardonnay was bottled—and is currently drinking like one of the finest on the planet.