The Cabernet Society | Virginia Willcock

From our table to yours, a collection of five decades of moments with the Vasse Felix Cabernet Sauvignon as shared by our Cabernet Society in celebration of the 50th vintage release.

Author | Virginia Willcock, Chief Winemaker

Paul had invited Tom Cullity to the Estate in 2007, the first time (we believe) he had been back to the vineyard since he sold Vasse Felix in 1984. Paul wanted to discuss the idea of making a wine called “TOM CULLITY” and I was fortunate enough to be invited to the lunch as the Winemaker. I mentioned that I had tried one of his early wines, the 1974 Cabernet, and I said it had a remarkable perfume of Peppy Trees, and that I thought the Cabernet from his original vines had a similar character in the vintage just gone.

He laughed and said, “Peppy Trees….that figures. When we racked the wine from the vat, we had no cleaning equipment to clean the lees out, so we grabbed a bucket of water from the Wilyabrup Brook and snapped a branch of the Peppy Tree outside the cellar and used the branch as a broom to clean the vat before we returned the wine back into the vat….no wonder it smelt like a Peppy Tree.”