2022 Kevin John magnum
This wine is harvested in Kevin John’s 100th birth year. Harvested from 3 separate Wente clone chardonnay blocks, planted in 1976 and 1988, on their own roots, yielding 1.8 tonnes per hectare.
Hand Harvested around the biodynamic calendar over 8 different harvest times from the 3rd to the 21st February. The fermentation took place in 50% new biodynamic puncheons, where it was left to mature for a further 6 months. No fining filtration or cold stabilisation to bottle.
50% new oak, 12% in Amphora prior to ferment and an additional 10% was fermented in concrete egg.
Vintage Notes
2022 vintage grew wines of immense perfume and texture. The cooler season and low yields ensured that the health of the vines and hence the fruit quality. Exceptionally good for chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, and of course Cabernet Sauvignon.
Winemaker Notes
Vineyard: 100% Cullen Vineyard
Varieties: 100% Chardonnay
Harvest: 3rd to 17th February, including one pick on a full Moon, Moon opposite Saturn Fruit day
Oak: 8 months in 35% now oak
Alcohol: 13.5%
Tasting Notes
Reviews
Author: Ray Jordan Publication: Wine Pilot Score: 98‘The approach to viticulture and then winemaking means that this wonderful chardonnay from the 2022 vintage is as pure as you can get. It all sort of just happens under the umbrella of a fastidious and rigorously uncompromising biodynamic discipline. The aromas are immediately complex and engaging with traces of talc and lime, a little pear and some nice roasted cashew. The palate kicks in with its power and precision displaying attractive savoury minerality, a little spice and vanilla bean and a rich buttery though controlled textural feel in the mouth. The purity and expression of place is heightened by the fact it is bottle unfined and unfiltered. This is a window into one of the finest vineyards in the land.’
Author: Gary Walsh Publication: Wine Pilot Score: 95+"It's a powerful and dry spicy wine. Lemon peel, cinnamon, clove spice, pear, fresh pineapple, apricot, ripe lime, and roasted peanuts. It's flinty, zesty, with slight oak. Still, the fruit swallows it up and carries on with aniseed, dried pear, lavish spice, tight grapefruity acidity, very intense chamomile and ginger on a finish of superb length. Chalky, spicy, oaky, a whole lot of Chardonnay power here, it's bursting with vitality, and it's pretty full on as a young wine, like staring at the sun. But give it time, and it should reward most handsomely."
Author: Winsor Dobbin Score: 97‘ It is a strange anomaly that Australia's finest white wines are far more affordable than our top reds. This is one of our star chardonnays, named in honour of the Cullen family patriarch. Made from fruit farmed organically and biodynamically from the family's Wilyabrup estate in Margaret River, it is absolutely luminescent with intense fruit but impeccable balance. The juice spent six months in 50% new French oak puncheons and was bottled without fining or filtration, retaining as many vineyard elements as possible. Impressively varietal, but with a special something. If this was a song it would have been produced by Phil Spector - and was even better after having been opened for 24 hours. Length, concentration and drive.’
$450.00
Previous Releases
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2016 Kevin John Magnum
Another great season for our vineyards and our 1976 Chardonnay vines produced some incredible fruit.
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2019 Kevin John Magnum
This wine, our flagship 2019 Kevin John has been sourced from our old chardonnay vines planted in 1976-1988. They are Gin Gin Clone, also known as the Old Wente Clone originally from UC Davis. They produce tiny yields of the best quality fruit.
Read moreView Tasting Notes -
2018 Kevin John Magnum
This wine, our flagship 2018 Kevin John has been sourced from our old chardonnay vines planted in 1976-1988
Read moreView Tasting Notes -
2020 Kevin John magnum
$380.00The 2020 Kevin John is made from the Wente Clone planted in 1976 on Cullen Vineyard. The soil is forest grove and mostly southerly slope or level. The vines are certified biodynamic, and in 2020 produced a yield of 1.3 tonnes per hectare.
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2017 Kevin John Magnum
2017 turned out to be another great season for our vineyards and our 1976 Chardonnay vines produced some incredible fruit.
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