With the 2013 vintage Vasse Felix renamed its flagship Cabernet blend. The wine that was Heytesbury is now Tom Cullity, named for the Margaret River pioneer who founded Vasse Felix in 1967. Langton’s Classified under its previous name, Tom Cullity Cabernet Malbec is assured a place among Australia’s finest red wines.
Tom Cullity Cabernet Malbec is assured a place among Australia’s finest red wines.
The wine is typically 75% cabernet sauvignon, 20% Malbec and 5% Petit Verdot sourced from the original Vasse Felix vineyard planted by Dr Tom Cullity. Fruit parcels are picked in small blocks and fermented with wild yeasts; 52% static fermented and macerated on skins for 20 days or more; 48% open fermented and macerated for 10-15 days on skins. The wine then typically spends 18 months in French oak (about 60% new, 40% second to fifth use) and is fined with egg whites and racked before bottling with minimal filtration.
Medium deep crimson. Fragrant cassis, dark plum, chinotto aromas with herb garden, aniseed notes. Voluminous blackcurrant, dark plum, blackberry fruits, lovely persistent fine chocolaty textures, superb mid-palate density, fresh juicy acidity and plentiful mocha, espresso oak notes. Finishes chocolaty with plentiful sweet dark fruits and attractive mineral length. Lovely concentration, definition and torque. Should last some distance and keep for a while to let the elements further integrate. An impressive landmark vintage. 78% cabernet sauvignon 17.5% malbec 4.5% petit verdot. Matured in new (59%) and seasoned French oak for 18 months. Drink 2024 – 2040 14.5% alc
98 point, The Vintage Journal
Good depth of colour with some purple in the rim. The bouquet is complex and savoury, with some mint and briar and 'eucalypt forest floor' among its savoury earthiness. Lavish oak as well. It's full-bodied and firm, with liberal tannins that are just a wee bit edgy today but will no doubt soften with age. There is real richness and concentration as well as elegance. It's a babe and needs time. (78% cabernet sauvignon, 17.5% malbec, 4.5% petit verdot)
97 points, The Real Review (April 2022)
Highly perfumed, blueberry, boysenberry and raspberry, baking spices, maybe a little pimento and choc-mint slice. It’s medium-bodied, fresh and lively, fragrant and succulent in fruit flavour, with a subtle bay leaf character, tannin is ripe and gravelly, and the finish is very long and firm. It’s powerful, yet graceful too, showing the excellent 2018 vintage to great effect. It’ll be a beautiful thing given time to unfurl.
96 points, The Wine Front (April 2022)
This wine is the benchmark of the latent power, grace and inherent balance of the 2018 vintage in Margaret River. Texturally similar to the classically sophisticated 2014 vintage, but with far greater density and weight. Here, the savoury tannins are countersunk into the fruit already: shapely, firm, chewy, malleable – everywhere and nowhere at once. Waves of blood plum, cassis, blackberry, pomegranate, juniper, raspberries, saltbush, bay leaf and salted red licorice crash against the rocks, as kelp, nori, iodine, red gravel and brine ride the smaller sets out the back. Sensational. Astounding. A wine for the ages.
99 points, Wine Companion (February 2022)
A great edition of the top Cabernet blend from Vasse Felix, this has a lot of power and depth. The aromas run from red to blue and dark berries with a leafy edge and attractive, fresh florals. The palate has a core of blue-toned fruit flavour that drives so deep, with a helix-like interplay of acidity and tannin. Impressive. Drink over the next decade or more. Screw cap.
98 Points, Top 100 Wine of Australia 2021, JamesSuckling.com
Is this the year where Tom Cullity really hits the jackpot? Absolutely, with this vintage sure to be a Margaret River classic that will age beautifully for decades to come. Deep ruby in colour, it exudes muscular and generous fruit aromas which show great power and focus – ink, blackberry and blueberry ripple with a rich vein of French oak sitting just behind. That muscularity continues on the palate while retaining fruit delicacy in a mouth filling package underpinned by a rich core of dark and slightly savoury flavours. Superb tannin management provides structure that is a perfect match before finishing with an exceptionally long and sustained finish. Super impressive and will age a mile.
97 points, Wine Pilot (May 2022)
Margaret River
Located three hours south of Perth, Margaret River is Western Australia’s most prestigious wine-growing region. Serious vineyard development began only in the late 1960’s following the publication of a report by John Gladstones in 1965 stating that the area had a similar climate to Pomerol or St Emilion, with low frost risk, plenty of sunshine and equable temperatures within the growing season promoting even ripening. Margaret River’s climate is warm and maritime, with some cooling influence provided by southeast trade winds. The soils derive from granitic and a gneissic rock over which laterite has formed. The region can be divided in three sub-regions: the cooler south between Yallingup and Karridale with predominantly lateritic gravelly loamy sands and sandy loams; the warm and sunnier Willyabrup in the centre with predominantly gravelly loams, but some gritty sandy loams and granitic gravels; and Margaret River in the north with similar soils, but slightly cooler temperatures. This is entirely consistent with style; the wines from Willyabrup being more generous than the highly structured wines of the north and the elegant styles of the south. Margaret River is best known for high quality Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc Semillon blends and top notch Cabernet Sauvignon and Bordeaux blends. Over the years, the region has established an astonishing reputation illustrating a consistency in quality and a strongly focused winemaking culture.
Vasse Felix was the first commercial vineyard and winery to be established in Margaret River. The name is derived from Vasse (a French seaman who drowned last century while exploring the coastline on the ship Geographe under Captain Freycinet) and the French term for luck. Under the ownership of the Holmes a Court family Vasse Felix has carved an excellent reputation for its superbly made wines. The plush, intensely-flavoured and chocolaty Vasse Felix Heytesbury Cabernet Blend – a limited-release, best-of-vintage ‘Grand Vin’ – is a beacon of quality that is included in the Langton’s Classification. The Vasse Felix Cabernet Sauvignon, also Langton's-Classified, captures regional rather than site-specific characters. Of equal reputation are the exemplary Chardonnays, both the 'standard' Vasse Felix and the flagship Heytesbury. The Shiraz is also excellent. The entry-level Filius range -- a Chardonnay and a Cabernet-Merlot -- offers exceptional quality and value, as do the even more affordable 'ground-floor' duo of Classic Dry White (Semillon-Sauvignon) and Classic Dry Red (Shiraz-Cabernet). Andrew Caillard MW, Langton's
