2021 Diana Madeline Cabernet Sauvignon Merlot
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Tasting notes
From a pioneering producer, here we have a benchmarch Cabernet wine in the region. The 2021 release marked 50 years of Cabernet Sauvignon at the Cullen Wilyabrup vineyard and would've marked 100 years of age for Diana Madelina Cullen, who founded the estate with her husband Kevin. It opens cool and restrained with subtle dusty cedar before sandalwood, dark cherry, and blackcurrant. Some exposure to air reveals subtle charred capsicum, plum, turned earth, black olive, dried herbs, graphite, and ironstone minerality. Despite it's complexity, it's still reserved and demure in feel, needing time to unfurl and flourish in the glass. The palate has a similar aesthetic in its cool elegance and mineral feel. Cedar, plum and mulberry sit above ironstone, earth, charred capsicum and gentle black olive. The tannins are grainy and stacked, constricting the mouth before waves of plummy acidity freshen the back palate to good length. This needs time in cellar, but there's also charm and immense complexity on show now.
Critic scores
Average Score
Jane Anson, Inside Bordeaux
Erin Larkin, Wine Advocate
More reviews and scores
The 2021 Diana Madeline is a fascinating wine, one that feels as if it is evolving before my very eyes. Particularly the tannins, which at this stage possess a capaciousness—they force the walls of fruit outward in the mouth. It's good. At this stage, the tannins feel grippy like Barolo, substantial in this way, and I find this informs the flavors in an all too Italianate direction. A lovely thing. There are roses, petrichor, dried herbs, asphalt, nori, fennel seeds and iodine. 2021 was not an easy Cabernet vintage in Margaret River, nor was it consistently good across the region, yet this is not just a good effort in the season that was but a remarkable wine in and of itself. Kudos. The blend is 91% Cabernet Sauvignon, 4% Merlot, 2% Cabernet Franc, 2% Malbec and 1% Petit Verdot. 13.5% alcohol, sealed under screw cap.