Description / Reviews
// 90% Cabernet Sauvignon, 5% Cabernet Franc, 3% Malbec, and 2% Merlot
"Diana Madeline is the culmination of more than 50 years of dedication, care, and deep respect for the land. The vines, planted in 1971 on ancient gravelly granite soils, consistently produce a wine of great quality, elegance, perfume, and balance. Violets and wild rose with mulberry, satsuma plum and cigar box, expanding into liquorice, cherry and chocolate, finished with iodine, ironstone and a hint of curry leaf. Elegant and perfumed, yet intense and highly attractive, showing beautiful fruit density, balance and opulent structure. Fine tannins expand gracefully across the palate, revealing layers of cassis, mulberry and cherry with rich cacao, lifted by floral rose notes and savoury plum. The back palate is wrapped in ironstone and cigar box, laced with cedar and sandalwood, finishing with grace, silk-like length and true finesse." - Cullen, Winemaker
"2024 was always facing a tough task following on from the truly sensational 2023 vintage. In Margaret River however, wonderful vintages seem the norm rather than the exception. 2024 broke records as the earliest, driest and hottest vintage experienced by the region, but the team found that biodynamic practices enabled the vineyards to come through and offer yet another superb DM Cab. Harvest took place over six pickings, on Fruit and Flower days and concluded on a Moon opposite Saturn astral event. The fruit was placed in a mix of amphorae and stainless steel tanks for wild fermentation and skin contact ranged from 15 to 78 days. Maturation was for an average of fourteen months, 50% of the barrels being new oak. The oak was a combination of puncheons and biodynamic barriques. The final wine is 90% Cabernet Sauvignon 5% Cabernet Franc 3% Malbec and 2% Merlot. Near black/maroon with a dark magenta rim, the nose reveals aromas of black fruits, tobacco leaves, cloves, a touch of axle grease, chocolate, cassis, aniseed and blackberries. Brilliantly structured, the texture is sleek and seductive with succulent fruit throughout. The wine is very, very long and finishes with the silkiest of tannins. A wonderful Margaret River Cabernet which will sail through the next twenty years. Over that period, there is room for further improvement." - 98 Points, Ken Gargett, Wine Pilot
"Very deep red-purple colour, with a beautifully fragrant nose of cedar, tobacco leaf, crushed mulberry and blackberry, the full-bodied and muscular palate sporting masses of tannins which are ripe and supple without astringency or bitterness. This is very concentrated and power-packed, and begs to be left alone for several years before broaching, and will pay off big time if cellared. Hide it away to get your full money's worth. A glorious cabernet blend of outstanding potential." - 97 Points, Huon Hooke, The Real Review
