Cullen Kevin John Wilyabrup Chardonnay 2018

This has a lemon-cream edge to the nose with white peaches and a gentle edge of grilled hazelnuts, pie crust and pastry. The palate is super fresh, lithe and juicy with a tangy core of white-peach and lemon and lime-sorbet flavor that holds the finish. So elegant yet concentrated and long. Drink or hold. Screw cap.

This highly lauded wine from one of Margaret River’s greats is crafted for the long haul. It shows notes of oyster shell and ground white pepper, with lemon and pineapple rinds at the fore. The palate offers a beautiful texture, length and outstanding complexity. It would be a crime to drink this now when such rewards are sure to come to those who wait. Drink 2022–2035. Cellar Selection. 

The 2017 Kevin John Chardonnay features gentle notes of toast and honey overlaid on a core of fig, citrus fruit and white peaches. Medium-bodied, it's creamy in texture yet taut and crisp, with a long finish that ends on a dusty, phenolic note. It should drink well for a decade or so.

Precise and focused, with terrific purity and juiciness to the pear, Meyer lemon and dried pineapple flavors. Hints of butterscotch, spice and dried flowers linger on the finish. Drink now.

Picked on fruit and flower days, wild-fermented in French barriques for 5 months (75% new) and allowed to go through mlf. Wastes no time in asserting its blue blood ancestry with vital freshness and citrussy acidity retained despite the mlf. The layers of white flowers, white flesh stone fruit and grapefruit will become progressively richer and more complex with age, but it's so well balanced and full of life there is every reason to enjoy this chardonnay young.

This wine’s golden color, the broad scents of toasted lees and the golden-raisin flavors all imply a superripe wine. Instead, that full-bodied richness comes across as generosity, the flavors carefully keyed so that, with time, the tension and freshness of the wine come to the fore, transforming what, on the surface, appeared to be late-season ripeness to a cool, crisp yellow-apple flavor of autumn. Vanya Cullen worked with her mother, Diana, to convert the family’s vineyards to organic viticulture in 1998; she then gained biodynamic certification in 2004. The care she shows in growing and making this wine comes through in its active presence in the glass.

Jul/Aug '14 by Josh Raynolds. Greenish yellow. Heady aromas of ripe citrus and orchard fruits, honeysuckle, iodine and candied ginger, with subtle lees and smoky mineral qualities in the background. Juicy, incisive and pure, offering fresh tangerine, pear and chamomile flavors lifted by tangy acidity. This silky, seamless yet penetrating chardonnay finishes with a whiplash of lively citrus fruits and lingering floral character. I don't recall ever having a better example of this consistently outstanding Australian white wine. Incidentally, readers lucky enough to own some of the 2004 version of this wine (which was not called "Kevin John" back then) are sitting on some really outstanding chardonnay. A bottle that I drank in late May was still quite youthful, but beginning to show subtle nuttiness to go with its intense citrus fruit and pear skin flavors. I'd be in no hurry to drink it but wouldn't hesitate to enjoy it now either.-- Josh Raynolds