Cullen Wines

Cullen Wines holds a position in Australian wine that requires some unpacking for those outside the country: it is simultaneously one of Margaret River's founding estates, one of Australia's most awarded producers, and one of the earliest and most complete converts to biodynamic farming in the southern hemisphere.

Vanya Cullen, who has managed the estate since the 1990s following the deaths of her parents Di and Kevin Cullen, completed the biodynamic conversion under Demeter certification while simultaneously pursuing carbon neutrality — an achievement the estate reached and has maintained, making it one of a small number of wineries globally to hold both certifications in parallel. The farming at Cullen is not a marketing posture. The estate eliminated synthetic chemistry progressively from the 1990s and has operated under full biodynamic and certified organic standards ever since.

The Kevin John Chardonnay — named for Vanya's father and made from estate fruit grown on the original plantings — has drawn 97 points from James Halliday and earned Best Biodynamic Wine at the James Halliday Wine Companion Awards. The Diana Madeline Cabernet-Merlot is the wine that has defined Margaret River's case for being taken seriously as a Cabernet region, and it ages with a composure that only great farming makes possible.

Cullen is the kind of estate that, if it existed in Burgundy or the Médoc, would attract a waiting list. In Margaret River, it remains quietly, stubbornly excellent.