Crittenden Makes Top 20 in James Suckling's Top 100 Australian Wines

The 2018 Cri de Coeur Savagnin Sous Voile named in the top 20 wines of Australia, achieving 15th place in James Suckling's Top 100 Australian Wines for 2023.

The James Suckling Top 100 Australian Wines for 2023 are here and the 2018 Crittenden Cri de Coeur Savagnin Sous Voile has achieved 15th place in an impressive list of brilliant Australian wines.

You can see the full list of wines online here, and read the full review for the Cri de Coeur Savagnin below.

2018 Crittenden Cri de Coeur Savangnin Sous Voile, Top 100 Wines - 15th Place
"An absolutely brilliant wine, year in and out, at least since its inception six years ago. There is no other wine like it in the New World and superior it is, in fact, to many whence it was inspired in the Jura. Full-weighted by virtue of the surface yeasts, or voile, under which the wine was aged. Untopped in oak for four years. Scintillating aromas of curry powder, chamomile, Japanese pickled radish, washed rind cheese, preserved Moroccan lemon and salted nuts. Intense. Yet so compelling. This is only the superficial layer. Beneath, orange pekoe, ginger and cardamon. A wine for nerds, perhaps. But if you like the Jura or great sherry, this is a wine that will blow your mind. A thrill ride for the versatile table. Drink or hold ... for a long time."
97 Points  |  Ned Goodwin, 5 December 2023

The 2018 Crittenden Cri de Coeur Savagnin Sous Voile is made in small batches every year and thus we have very limited availability. If you'd like to order it to discover what makes this wine so distinct, please get in touch with our team at the Wine Centre by email or phone 03 5987 3000.

07/12/2023 at 11:02 AM Permalink

Wine News & Reviews, November 2023

The Cri de Coeur wines have acheived high scores and glowing reviews yet again. This time from the Wine Pilot's Shanteh Wale.

2021 Crittenden Cri de Coeur Chardonnay

Indigenous yeasts, whole bunch pressing and matured on gross lees in new and used French barriques with half going through malolactic fermentation. Yellow peach, lemon oil and cultured butter. Baked madeleines and shortcrust pastry. This wine, like all of Crittenden wines, has a deep well of flavour. The further down you peer the more the wine reveals. There is cracked marble, grated nutmeg and glace ginger and all the components work gracefully together like a harmonious symphony. This is for the true Chardonnay lovers, the loyalists that love the grape for its flesh, its longevity and for echoing sounds of nut brittle, camomile and peppery olive oil. This is so succinct and present. Drink with Dover Sole a la Meunière and bathe in bliss.

98 Points | Reviewed by Shanteh Wale on Wine Pilot.

2021 Crittenden Cri de Coeur Pinot Noir

This wine has been made at Crittenden for as long as I have been on this earth and it displays its earthy wisdom far far better than I do. Clonal separation, micro-fermentation and whole cluster vary between 20%-70% depending on the batch. 11 months maturation in new and seasoned oak barriques before the wine slumbers for 18 months in bottle. That resting time results in a potpourri of delicate rose buds, violets and angelica. Ripe hawthorn, redcurrants and rambutans. A forest floor of autumn leaves and nutmeg. The palate has a succulence with ripe stalky tannins, the pureness of red berries shining through with each sip. The caress of careful winemaking, vine age and clonal diversity means this wine is drinking superbly now and will cellar like a dream upwards of 8-10 years. Drink with Quail and roasted root vegetables.

96 Points | Reviewed by Shanteh Wale on Wine Pilot.
 

2018 Crittenden Cri de Coeur Savagnin Sous Voile

The sixth release of, what was at first, a mistake that evolved to an experiment to what is now one of Australia’s most celebrated, coveted and most delicious wines period. Absolutely impossible not to swoon and fall head over heels with the aromas that waft from the glass in this flor aged Savagnin. The 2018 aged under flor for 4 years and another year in bottle prior to release. Paraffin oil, yellow jasmine and preserved lemon. Crème brulée, roasted pine nuts and candied kumquat. The wine is energetic on the palate with a hint of Picholine olive brine salinity and a savoury Chanterelle mushroom finish. It’s utterly superb. For all of you that don’t love this style of wine I say, “Thank goodness, there isn’t enough to go around anyway”. A hard wine to pair, for the reason the cooking needs to be of elite level. Go with classic Comté cheese or if a chef is at the helm, roast spatchcock with a chanterelle and morel mushroom sauce. Next level yum.

98 Points | Reviewed by Shanteh Wale on Wine Pilot.

Crittenden Cri de Coeur Macvin #4

It’s total indulgence to make Macvin when your Savagnin Sous Voile is in such high demand and so is the experience of tasting it. Unmitigated indulgence. The 2018 Savagnin flor wine is blended with the fresh 2022 juice and then fortified to 17%. To finish a meal, this is as close as it gets to losing yourself into the glass, forgetting where you are, who you are with and floating away on a vinous cloud to beverage heaven. Well it is for me. Pineapple jam, baked quince pie, dried orange and kombucha. Grated candlenut, swaying kelp and shards of hazelnut brittle. Popped mustard seeds, honeysuckle and a palate of baked parsnips, lemon curd and fresh guava. I could go on and on. This is world class Macvin and a celebration of wine. Drink on its own or with homemade bitter honeycomb and ice cream.

97 Points | Reviewed by Shanteh Wale on Wine Pilot.

23/11/2023 at 12:27 PM Permalink

Courage to Create Cri de Coeur

"Wine is like life," wrote Ned Goodwin MW - reviewer and wine writer for the James Suckling Wine Ratings website.

"One fossicks through the drudgery to get to the beauty and when it appears... it demands a yelp of thanks. So it is, when this triumvirate arrives from Crittenden Wines."

Ned goes on to say online:
"Very few producers had the courage and flight of fancy to think long term and outside of the box.

Rollo Crittenden, the winemaker at Crittenden Estate in Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula, was an exception.

His assistant winemaker, Matt Campbell, had experienced Vin Jaune on a trip to the Jura years before. In 2011, he decided to take a barrel of his misbegotten savagnin and leave it untopped and unsulfured.

Intuitively, the flor surface yeast, or “voile” (veil) as it is known in the Jura, began to cover the wine.

This facilitated a biological aging process under the aegis of the yeast, prompting kaleidoscopic complexities of cheese cloth, curry powder, salted nuts, camomile and aldehydes, not dissimilar to Japanese radish, that the Crittrenden Cri de Coeur Savagnin has become known for.

Crittenden calls the genesis of the Cri de Coeur “one of the greatest mistakes that has ever happened to us.” Tasting the 2018, I couldn’t agree more. The wine is invariably brilliant, although the 2018 feels weightier and more viscous, perhaps, than years past. It should age very well over the course of a decade to 15 years.

Crittenden also crafts a Macvin, currently the forth iteration, or #4 as it is labeled.

This is a gently fortified style that also draws on the heritage of the Jura. The wine is crafted with savagnin that is aged for four years under flor before being sweetened with savagnin juice and fortified to 17 percent. It boasts a similar flavor profile to the Cri de Coeur with an additional hint of brulee.

You can read more about what Ned has to say here www.jamessuckling.com/wine-tasting-reports

22/08/2023 at 9:59 AM Permalink

Wine Business Monthly Mag - Cri de Coeur Pinot mention!

A recent write up in Wine Business Monthly of our Cri de Coeur Pinot Noir.....we know it's almost sold out but it's a great review!

See it here.

27/02/2023 at 12:27 PM Permalink

Another Savagnin article!

You may well be tiring of our frequent write ups regarding the Cri de Coeur Savagnin… This one’s a cracker though and well worth a look. Campbell Mattinson, recently appointed chief editor of the Halliday Wine Companion, has written the attached feature article which was inspired by a recent vertical tasting of our Savagnins. This insightful piece explains the accidental origins of the wine through to where the project stand today – a story which he compares to the rise of the iconic Australian wine Grange!

He also states…

 “This wine is not only different, and stellar, it has the ability to stop you in your tracks, and make you think. It’s like a piece of art; it asks questions of you, as you ask questions of it.”

The article appears in the Feb/March edition of The Halliday Magazine which is about to hit the newsagent stands any day now…

Just a note – the current vintage of the Savagnin – 2017 – is all but sold out. 2018 will be released around August this year.

Click here

20/01/2023 at 1:55 PM Permalink