Vasse Felix Tom Cullity 2019

This wine shows the benefit of an extra year in the bottle – it’s coming together really well. Not the perfume of the 2018, but there is structure and poise here. Pronounced seaweed nori aroma with blackcurrant fruitiness and slightly toasty oak. This was a vintage that continues to reveal itself and should never be overlooked. It has such a seamless and slinky integrated palate that it just coasts through effortlessly to a sustained, long finish. A beautiful medium bodied wine. Normally this wine gets a small amount of Petit Verdot but, because of the cooler vintage, none was included in the 2019. You really get a sense of prettiness and purity plus the detail in the wine when you get to the end of the glass. Brilliant.

• Drinking Window: 2023 - 2048
• Reviewer Name: Ray Jordan

This comparatively cool vintage of Vasse Felix's top red is beautifully perfumed and lucid, with pronounced savory, earthy aromas like beet root, tobacco and dried Mediterranean herbs and florals. They weave between bright, tangy currant fruit and soft mocha characters. The silky, slinky palate is expertly structured, the fine, talc-like tannins creeping in slowly, then taking over at the long finish. A gorgeous tightrope of power and elegance, and the epitome of class, this is a complete wine now but could age for several decades more.

• Drinking Window: 2023 - 2035
• Reviewer Name: MaryAnn Worobiec
• Review Date: September 2023

Made with 78% Cabernet Sauvignon and 22% Malbec, this had a 100% wild ferment with 100% whole berry and was matured in French oak for 17 months (66% new). The 2019 season in Margaret River was cool and wet (in a good, balanced way), and it produced wines of presence, poise, detail and nuance. The only problem with 2019 as a vintage here was its proximity to the great 2018. However, the beauty of a year like 2019 is its ability to satisfy the drinkers who prefer cooler seasons. It's all mood-related for me, and on some days, a cool-season wine is preferred to a powerful one, and vice versa. No right or wrong. The low-yielding 2019 vintage is the first time the Tom Cullity wine did not include any percentage of Petit Verdot (previously, anything from 1% to 4.5% has made it into the blend). So, to the wine. On the nose, the 2019 Tom Cullity Cabernet Sauvignon Malbec is brooding and dark, with layers of blackberry, resin, chewing tobacco, nori, saltbush, togarashi spice (nori, Valencia orange peel, cayenne pepper, sesame, ginger, poppy seed, white pepper) and licorice root grace the aromatics. In the mouth, the wine follows suit. A seductively dark, satisfying and svelte wine, it's super good. This is a more polarizing style than the universally lauded 2018.

• Drinking Window: 2023 - 2059
• Reviewer Name: Erin Larkin
• Review Date: July 2023

A dense and layered red with blackcurrants, mushroom, bark, and forest flowers with hints of fresh sage. Medium-bodied with a pretty core of currants and sweet berries with hints of dried and fresh herbs. So creamy and polished in texture. Extremely long and persistent. Drinks wonderfully now. Savory. A cabernet sauvignon and malbec blend. Own roots. From organically grown grapes. Drink or hold. Screw cap.

78% Cabernet Sauvignon 22% Malbec. French oak Barrique 66% new, 34% 2-4 year old. Some wines are so elevating on the nose, that there’s a hesitancy to put the glass to one’s lips, in fear that the palate cannot possibly live up to the hedonistic aromatics. The 2019 Tom Cullity is one of those wines. The confident, perfumed beauty of the Malbec is upheld by the fine boned and long limbed frame provided by Cabernet. Wild berry, graphite, gravel, concentrated deep black fruits and a whisper of woodsmoke and potpourri. There’s a distinct savoury note of Australian bush undergrowth and dried, crushed Eucalypt which is kept in check with tones of berry coulis and cassis. On the palate there is a burst of powerfully dense yet elegant fruit, lifted by a fine acid line that flows throughout the length of the lithe and sinewy tannins. Crafted from some of the oldest vines in the region holding court over the surrounding Wilyabrup hillsides, this is a focused expression of Margaret River Cabernet. Wow, what a wine. Delicious and balanced drinking now, or cellar for 20+ years