The Unbearable Lightness of Tom Cullity Cabernet Sauvignon
Essay originally published in 2023. Full notes of a vertical tasting of Vasse Felix Tom Cullity Cabernet Sauvignon 2013–2020 added in 2026, along with notes on the Vasse Felix Tom Cullity Cabernet Sauvignon 2021 and Vasse Felix Tom Cullity Cabernet Sauvignon 2022, making for a full set.
In my early years as a writer I’d practice writing sentences, single sentences, beautiful sentences. The theory was that if I could write a perfect sentence, and follow it with another, making a perfect paragraph, eventually I would have a high-quality story, or script, or novel.
My benchmark then was Truman Capote’s Breakfast at Tiffany’s – the novella, not the film – which was at the time the closest thing to sentence-by-sentence perfection I knew. I followed this approach for a long time.
Every day, a few sentences, practising. These years were important to my development but eventually I realised that this approach was folly. Style was more important than perfection. And voice – unique in the true sense of the word – was more important than both perfection and style combined.
That is, competency and even indeed beauty are great in themselves. But beyond a certain level, they are a given. Having something to say, about something, is where the real magic lies.
This is relevant in a wine context too. A lot of wines, even among the upper echelons, are the equivalent of sentence-by-sentence perfection. Among these there are also a great many with a clear and overt style. Wines that are perfectly grown and made, and have a true sense of their own style, are a wonderful thing. But unless they really have something to say, about somewhere or about something, then it’s hard to say that they are really at the pinnacle.
This is why those wines that have a unique voice, and say something about somewhere, are so unique, and so prized. Lots of wines – even single-vineyard wines – show clear regional character, and high quality, but that special, I-can’t-get-this-from-anywhere-else impression remains tantalisingly out of reach.
For a long time now, I’ve had Tyrrell’s 4 Acres Shiraz – a wine rarely seen outside of the captivity of its direct cellar door sales – as the unofficial chairperson of this Unique Voice Club, or at least of the Australian chapter of it. Tyrrell’s 4 Acres Shiraz tastes of the Hunter Valley in its own special way. There is no other Australian shiraz quite like it. It’s light. It’s lacy. It doesn’t hit you between the eyes; it gets under your skin when you’re not looking.
Now, or at least over the past handful of years, another Australian wine has stepped into this unique territory. It’s another wine that is lighter than you expect, and more transparent – in a great way – because of it. It’s Vasse Felix Tom Cullity Cabernet Sauvignon. It’s made (by winemaker Virginia Willcock) with cabernet sauvignon and malbec.
Vasse Felix is one of the Margaret River originals – it was founded by Tom Cullity in 1967 – but the first release under this name didn’t come until 2013. I was lucky enough to taste every release of this wine recently – vintages 2013 through 2020 inclusive. What struck me most about this tasting was not that every release, thus far, has been outstanding, but that these wines are unique. They taste of Margaret River, they taste of cabernet sauvignon, and they taste of malbec. But as much as anything, they taste of themselves.
When Virginia Willcock interviewed for the job of winemaker at Vasse Felix, way back when, she was asked why she wanted to work there. “You’ve got the oldest vine cabernet and malbec in the region,” she replied, “but I can’t taste them in the wine.”
Needless to say, since then, Virginia has set about changing that. Tom Cullity Cabernet Malbec is the result. Interestingly – in the past – the wines made from these oldest vines on the Vasse Felix estate were often pushed back in Vasse Felix’s own hierarchy because they were seen to be “too light”. It was only once Virginia had clawed deeper into the special-ness of her site – past, perhaps, the perfect sentences phase – that she came to see that this lightness was a part of what made the wine from these oldest vines so unique.
“It’s become a refined, elegant, succulent wine, fine, best on its own because it’s unique,” she says. “I look at the Tom Cullity and I look at the elegance and finesse and I think, it’s different, it’s beautiful, it’s fine-boned, and that’s why it’s stunning.”
It’s often assumed in wine that higher quality means higher intensity of flavour. It often does. But every now and then it’s the opposite: the magic is in the lightness, that unbearable, inherent lightness.
If you want to do yourself the ultimate of wine favours, track down the 2013 and/or 2014 releases of Vasse Felix’s Tom Cullity Cabernet. Boy oh boy, wow, what a pigeon pair these wines are. You bring these wines to your mouth and the world recedes, the traffic fades, you slip into a cloud of elegance and from there the past marches up at you, the journey to now, and from there you’re away, you’re moved, you’re done.
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Notes below –
“Tom Cullity is a new-ish wine that was a long journey to its start line. It’s a journey that began in the 1850s, you could say, when cabernet and malbec were first journeyed to Western Australia, and grown on the banks of the Swan River, which is where legendary West Australian wine figure Jack Mann comes in. ”
Campbell Mattinson’s notes on Vasse Felix Tom Cullity Cabernet Sauvignon
2013
Gorgeous aromatics. Peppermint and redcurrant, violets and earth, with leather and chocolate swirling within. The palate, wow, is so lengthy, and so elegant, and so complex, and just so wonderfully flavoured. This is exquisite. You could say that it’s at its drinking peak now, because it would be hard for it to get any better, but this will sail on for many, many years, as all classic wines do. 97 points.
2014
Fuller than the 2013 but the same elegant, fine-boned length, and much the same flavour profile, but darker. Mint, choc-vanilla, pure blackcurrant, absolute silk but so fresh and lively. Virginia Willcock mentioned the words “good stable tannin” to describe why it remains fresh, and why its colour still looks so youthful. The aromatics of this wine are both the duck’s guts and the duck’s feathers. The carry of flavour through the finish, both inside the tannin and coded into the acidity, is seriously above and beyond the usual. 97 points.
Note: 2013 and 2014 work as a pigeon pair. The 2015 release is then a beauty of its own design.
2015
A meatier, earthier expression of cabernet. Peppermint and blackberry, into briar and sweet tobacco. It tastes like real cabernet. It has some attitude, some grunt, in an elegant, refined context. A juiciness to this release. 94 points.
2016
It’s like a combination of 2014 and 2015. Much elegance, some grunt, great length. Peppercorn, red licorice, pure blackcurrant, rolls of tobacco, those sweet, leafy, dry herb notes. Blonde-haired herbs, as I like to call them. Cinnamon and chocolate donut notes (likely from oak) too. Firm-ish finish; authoritative. Complete wine. Long, long future ahead. 96 points.
2017
Crushed purple flowers, gum leaves, that sweet vanilla and cinnamon note, that pour of heartland blackcurrant. These wines carry their components beautifully; harmoniously. Everything is tucked in as if everything is one and the same. Stellar release. Gorgeous herb notes. It’s elegant but it just has that extra push, that extra special. (from both the coolest, and highest yield, vintage in this bracket). 95 points.
2018
Complexity is on its way; fruit and length are already on full display. Boysenberry and blackcurrant, mint and tobacco, some smoked cedar. Beautiful balance, length, aroma. Licorice notes bloom as it breathes. Fundamentally top notch. Classic vintage. 96 points.
2019
Still coming together. Beautiful palate but the finish is still resolving itself. I can see why some might be cool on this release, it’s the epitome of the unbearable lightness of cabernet in style, but it will be another beauty given time. It’s a tangy release, with substance, with flesh, with pillows of redcurrant, with heady aromatics on top. I love the fresh, elegant, fruity/succulent length of this. As I sat with it, the length of the finish just kept extending out. 95 points.
2020 (tasted pre-release)
Will be a fantastic release. Complete from start to finish. Blackcurrant and bay leaf with savouriness and sweetness in perfect balance. Seamless. Cinnamon and blackcurrant, smoked cedar. Incredibly fine-grained-but-assertive tannin. (96 points)
End of vertical tasting. Notes on the 2021 and 2022 Vasse Felix Tom Cullity Cabernet Sauvignon added post release:
2021
This release of Tom Cullity Cabernet greets you with a friendly face and then pierces you with its gaze. It’s both tight and approachable; it’s a warm handshake in a vice. It tastes of cocoa, purple flowers, redcurrant, olives, sandalwood and rosemary-brushed brine. It has that Vasse malbec back-story; that leathery-curranty hum beneath. [Full Review of Vasse Felix Cabernet Sauvignon 2021]. 96 points.
2022
This is as effortless a cabernet as you’d ever hope to encounter. Wow this is seamless, and fresh, and harmonious, and charming. [Full Review on The Winefront]
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Vasse Felix is a Mattinson 10-Star Winery.
