97 Points

Barry Weinman - Fine Wine Club

This is the most impactful of the lineup, with the tannins and oak making an appearance much earlier in the palate transition than the previous vintages. But with a little bit of air, the spectacular fruit starts to build and just keeps on going, coating the whole length of the palate. Intense and powerful, yet this remains silky and supple. A superstar, but one that I would like to see in the third decade of its life.

96 Points

Cassandra Charlick

Produced from vines planted in 1967 by Dr Tom Cullity, this top Cabernet blend was renamed after the estate’s founder in 2013. From a fantastic vintage, this is still a baby of a wine considering its lifespan. The nose opens with an innate flashiness of red berries and tuberose absolute; but prettiness and charm underpin the opulence. Intensity and concentration on the palate; tannins are tight-knit and firm, yet with just enough movement to support the fruit weight and silvery acidity. Fruit is pristine yet powerful. Sun-warmed ironstone gravel and a hint of oak spice frame a flush of raspberry, tomato skin and delicate coppa meatiness. Judicious use of oak lets the fruit shine, and the length is outstanding. Elegant, with a long life ahead, yet it will drink well in its earlier years thanks to its generosity of fruit and sense of ease.

98 Points

Christina Pickard - Wine Enthusiast

From an excellent vintage, Vasse's top dog red deftly demonstrates the unique juxtaposition of grace, perfume and power inherent to this unique West Aussie region. 2020 is particularly aromatic and fruit driven, but the pop of fresh cherry, currant, raspberry and red licorice is neatly underscored by savory herb, graphite and dark-chocolate nuances. Ultrafine, chalky tannins are beautifully integrated with the silky red fruit and fresh acidity on the palate. A highly classy, harmonious and expertly made bottling that could cellar for decades whilst offering drinkability right now.

98 Points

Paul Edwards - The West Australian

The 2020 Tom Cullity is an extraordinary new release, which cements its place, amongst a rare few producers at the pinnacle of cabernet sauvignon production in Australia. Assisted by the glorious and warm 2020 vintage, the fruit purity and plushness of tannins is unsurpassed in Australia. The flavours speak of the heritage of the cabernet sauvignon variety equally as it does of its unique Margaret River site. It’s reticent at first, but opens up in the glass over an hour or more. Expect seamless rolling waves of flavour, from damson plum, blackberry, red cherry and sarsaparilla, to mineral graphite, bay leaf, roasted herbs and a subtle savoury oak spice. Svelte and sophisticated. Pure and luxurious. A profoundly good wine for your cellar.

97 Points

Jane Faulkner - Halliday Wine Companion

Winemaker Virginia Willcock worries about her flagship wines leaving the fold, as in Heytesbury Chardonnay and Tom Cullity, released too young, she says. And while she’s right, anyone buying them knows time will reward the patient. It’s built for ageing, but I’m impatient, and this Tom Cullity is youthful but also complete. Malbec, off the original plantings, comprises 16 per cent of the blend; three per cent petit verdot, too, is fundamental to the shape and flavour profile. Dark-fruited, meaty, spicy, complex, roasted chicory accented, floral and beguiling. Fuller bodied with exceptional tannins, all textural, expansive and long, working in tandem with the acidity to a long finish.

96 Points

Huon Hooke - The Real Review

Named after the founder of Vasse Felix, this is one of the iconic wines of the region, and it’s a tradition to include some malbec in the blend. The colour is bright and limpid and the bouquet offers earthy, ferrous/ironstone and nori/dried seaweed aromas that team well with the intense and tightly packed palate structure. Firm and long, a serious wine worth cellar space. It’s young and there is already a lot of detail. Impressive wine.

96 Points

Tom Kline - Winepilot

From an excellent Cabernet vintage in Margaret River, Vasse Felix’s most premium red wine provides quite the ride as it evolves in the glass. Sweet clove and sticky date pudding leap from the glass, before cracked cardamom pod and peppercorn bring a cut of sweet and savoury spice. The fruit is aching to emerge to fill things out, and it does in the form of baked plum, mulberry, boysenberry and blackcurrant. A good swirl of the glass brings cohesion and further complexity in the form of nori salt, bay leaf, vanilla bean, tilled earth, dark chocolate, and ground coffee. The palate is cooling, mineral, lifted and vibrant with restrained power. Baked plum, boysenberry, mulberry pie, earth, and dark chocolate are bound up in silty cocoa-nib laced tannins and saline acidity to a cohesive and seemingly endless dark-chocolate infused closed. A wine of immense complexity, length and cellarability. This benefits from time in decanter, and would reward with a long rest in the cellar.

97 Points

James Suckling

The nose is wonderfully complex and perfumed with aromas of blackcurrants, violets, wild blackberries, graphite and eucalyptus. The full-bodied palate has seamless tannins and focused acidity, giving notes of mulberries, mocha, dried herbs and saltbush. Very refined and polished with an underlying power. Excellent.