Vasse Felix
Vasse Felix is a Mattinson 10-Star Winery.
Only the best of Australia’s best wineries are ranked as a Mattinson 10-Star Winery.
The first time I saw winemaker Virginia Wilcock in action was at a regional tasting of Margaret River cabernet sauvignon in an upstairs room of the Cape Mentelle winery. This was way back in September 2001. Willcock wouldn’t make her way to the position of head winemaker at Vasse Felix until another five years hence and in winemaker terms she was, at the time, young – or at least she was in relation to most of the others in the room. And yet she owned that day, commanding it with her insight, with her interpretations of the glasses in front of us, and with the sharpness of both her palate and of her vision of what Margaret River cabernet could be. It was as obvious then as it is obvious now that Willcock was someone who belonged at the top of Australian wine.
Willcock has been the head winemaker at Vasse Felix now for nearing twenty years. Vasse Felix has been good forever but what I really like about this producer is its constant drive to be better today than it was yesterday. Vasse Felix was a pioneer – and has been a quality leader – of the Margaret River region since the 1970s; it was a great and important producer long before the arrival of Willcock. And yet in many ways the Vasse Felix wines today are made in Willcock’s image. They are disciplined wines, wild where and when they need to be, honest, reliable, forever striving to be the best that they can be. Slowly, as the years have passed, the best wines of Vasse Felix have become more refined, more elegant, and more beautiful.
The perfect case in point is the 2023 Vasse Felix Heytesbury Chardonnay. This wine somehow combines the most complex stitching with the most effortless flow. It’s exquisite, as too is the 2021 Cullity Cabernet Sauvignon (and, indeed, the full lineage of Cullity Cabernet Sauvignon). Vasse Felix, renowned now for its chardonnay and for its cabernet, has always had the malbec grape as the ace up its sleeve, which it judiciously employs. It also has access to and ownership of some of Margaret River’s most prized heritage vineyards. And then there is the irrepressible force that is Willcock. These details are the village out of which wine greatness is commonly raised.
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The Winefront site has Vasse Felix Heytesbury Chardonnay pretty comprehensively covered. Reviews of Vasse Felix Heytesbury Chardonnay on the subscriber-only The Winefront site are:
Vasse Felix Heytesbury Chardonnay 2003
Vasse Felix Heytesbury Chardonnay 2006
Vasse Felix Heytesbury Chardonnay 2007
Vasse Felix Heytesbury Chardonnay 2008
Vasse Felix Heytesbury Chardonnay 2009
Vasse Felix Heytesbury Chardonnay 2010
Vasse Felix Heytesbury Chardonnay 2011
Vasse Felix Heytesbury Chardonnay 2012
Vasse Felix Heytesbury Chardonnay 2013
Vasse Felix Heytesbury Chardonnay 2014
Vasse Felix Heytesbury Chardonnay 2015
Vasse Felix Heytesbury Chardonnay 2016
Vasse Felix Heytesbury Chardonnay 2017
Vasse Felix Heytesbury Chardonnay 2018
Vasse Felix Heytesbury Chardonnay 2019
Vasse Felix Heytesbury Chardonnay 2020
Vasse Felix Heytesbury Chardonnay 2021
Vasse Felix Heytesbury Chardonnay 2022
Vasse Felix Heytesbury Chardonnay 2023