Vasse Felix Tom Cullity Cabernet Sauvignon-Malbec 2016

Professional Ratings

• 96 Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

  This wine was made with 78% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% Malbec and 2% Petit Verdot. It had a 100% wild ferment with 100% whole berry and was matured in French oak for 19 months (80% new). The 2016 Tom Cullity Cabernet Sauvignon Malbec has it all. It is fleshy, ripe, firmly tannic (yet ductile and pliable), luscious in its fruit display (black and purple berries) and seamless in its flow of tannin. It's a brilliant wine, glossy and polished. This will live for eons.

  Rating: 96+

• 96 Wine Enthusiast
  currant, cedar, olive brine, bay leaf and cigar box. Layers of texture and flavor flow over the tongue, knit together by a powdery, fine line of tannins. Oak is present but should integrate seamlessly with time in bottle. It's a classy wine that walks a tightrope of power and elegance.
• 96 James Suckling
  This has a very complex, integrated array of red-plum, redcurrant and mulberry aromas with cedary nuances, as well as forest wood, fresh earth, graphite, pepper, leaves, shitake mushrooms and more. The palate is finely layered with grainy, powerful tannin and gives an overall impression of focused power with deeply rich dark berries, plums, berries and mulberries. Seamlessly composed. This has a long life ahead.
• 96 Decanter
  Perfumed with exotic spice, incense, blackcurrant flower and plush plum, while the palate is textured with lush, rich fruit and a neat acidity.
• 95 Wine & Spirits
  This wine is dedicated to the founder of Vasse Felix, one of the pioneering growers in Margaret River; the cabernet sauvignon and malbec vines Virginia Willcock farms for this wine are descendants of the vines Tom Cullity planted at his vineyard in 1968. Ocean currents meet red and black currants in this smooth and luscious blend, engaging for its voluptuous texture as well as its splash of colorful fruit. There’s an undertow taking you deeper into red cherry and pomegranate, leaving you in the midst of succulent tannins, receding slowly into addictive freshness that immediately brings you back for more. Or so it did for me. This is an Aussie cabernet with elegance, one with decades of life ahead.
• 92 Wine Spectator
  There's an elegance and juiciness to the bright red fruit flavors and notes of spiced plum at the core, with pretty details of matcha green tea, nutmeg and toasted herb. Cumin, black pepper and cedar accents linger on the finish, where the tannins firm up. Cabernet Sauvignon and Malbec.