TN: 1998 Cullen Wines Cabernet Sauvignon - Merlot (Diana Madeline)

WINE TALK
1

Stewed green vegetables on the nose, black currants and lots of toasty oak.

On the palate, tart black currants, sweet raisins, and a balsamic quality.

Not particularly enjoyable drinking, and seems like age has not been kind. I’m tempted to rate this flawed but this is somewhat consistent with the inconsistent experience I have had with this bottling. I see quite a few other notes of flawed, so there seems to be reasonable concern about this vintage. (78 pts.)

Posted from CellarTracker

2

1999 is the better vintage

3

IIRC the single bottle we had of the 1998 had aged prematurely. We have a few 1999s and 2001s still

The 1998 was wine of the year for Jeremy Oliver, someone who’s not afraid to cut down the tall poppies, so that suggests just an unexpectedly bad vintage for ageing, or perhaps an issue with cork quality.

4

The cork looked great for an Aussie wine of the 90s (cork quality was do bad in Aussie and NZ before almost everyone went Stelvin). I have the 1997 which I think is also meant to be a good vintage. Maybe I’ll dig that out.

5

Hi Clayton, thanks very much for posting a note on this wine, not very encouraging at all. I have some of this in my Melbourne cellar and so your note is of great interest. I am hoping that yours was a bad bottle / bad cork but the signs are not very good…

FWIW, I had a bottle of the 1994 Cab Merlot Reserve earlier this year and it was really good indeed.

cheers Brodie

6

'98 vintage I had two years ago was not very good but the '01 vintage was very good when I tasted it a 6 months ago, easily one of the most impressive Australian I have in a long time.

7

Correct. Based on J Oliver’s call I purchased a six pack but later found it to be underwhelming.

I have few 99, 01 and 04 in the cellar. They are nice. I stopped purchasing after that until recently when I bought a couple of 2012.

8

Apology time. I was sure that it was a 1998 Cullen that was prematurely aged, but having bought only a single bottle, it must have been a dud 1999. This, tonight’s bottle the 1998, is singing, with a complex nose showing still youthfully bright blackcurrant fruit, yet with some meaty complexity lurking below the surface. The palate perhaps a touch more primary, but with such freshness/purity to the fruit. Tannins have largely dropped away, and the acidity is also nicely bright - perhaps even a tad strong for some palates?
Anyway, it shows I should be more diligent and check exactly what vintage it is before dissing a wine [oops.gif]