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Home > Our Wines

2020 TOM CULLITY

Vasse Felix, Margaret River’s founding wine estate, was established by Dr Thomas Brendan Cullity in 1967. Among his first plantings were Cabernet Sauvignon and Malbec vines, from which he produced the estate’s first red wine. The TOM CULLITY descends from these original vines and represents the purest expression of our history, place and vintage; the pinnacle of Vasse Felix. 

Dr Tom Cullity
1925-2008

Dr Tom Cullity was a respected Cardiologist from Western Australia. He discovered the great table wines of Europe in the 1950s while in Britain working at the National Heart Hospital. Upon returning home, Tom set himself a mission to make fine wines in WA. He searched extensively for the perfect plot of land, taking guidance from the research of Professor Harold Olmo (1955) and Dr John Gladstones (1965) before establishing an 8 acre vineyard in Cowaramup called Vasse Felix.

Tom’s tenacious and enduring persistence led to the successful creation of Margaret River’s first commercial wines. He is remembered for his pioneering role in establishing the Margaret River Wine Region. The TOM CULLITY is a fitting tribute to this extraordinary legacy.

DOWNLOAD TASTING NOTES

A limited selection of magnums are available, click the link below for more.

2020 Tom Cullity Magnum - 1500ml

Available at fine dining Restaurants and fine wine retail throughout Australia. Discover stockists here.

Tasting Notes
APPEARANCE Bright garnet. NOSE An incredibly full and complex perfume slowly teases apart, revealing woodsy raspberry pip, salty sea breeze, potpourri with fresh rose petals, a hint of orange peel, crushed rock, mulberry, mulberry leaves and shiitake mushrooms. PALATE A plush, yet beautifully fresh and elegant mouthfeel that remains textured thanks to classically fine tannins. A hint of raspberry and another touch of orange combine with savoury, crushed rock and a subtle cigar nuance, finishing the super fine palate.
Winemaker Notes
WINEMAKERS NOTES A warm and low-yielding vintage has delivered a hallmark Cabernet of intensity and depth, a round and even textured version of the pure TOM CULLITY, ever transparent to the vintage that was. The small sections of Tom’s old plots were early to ripen by the end of March. They were hand-picked, destemmed and transferred to fermenter without crushing and then allowed to ferment with the natural yeast. The Cabernet is static fermented, gently pumped over through a splash tub and then left on skins for up to 29 days to stabilise and make structurally sound. The Malbec and some Cabernet Sauvignon were open fermented, hand plunged and pressed dry. All batches were basket-pressed to fine French oak and matured for 18 months. Only 30% of the barriques were racked and returned once, with the remaining barriques left on lees for the full 18 months. A small amount of Petit Verdot was used as a little seasoning in this warmer vintage. Classic, high-quality old vine portions of Malbec were used, bringing the darker more mulberry fruit to the foreground, adding to the beautiful mix of red-fruited, ancient clonal Cabernet that Tom planted.
Varietals:
Production Notes
81% Cabernet Sauvignon, 16% Malbec, 3% Petit Verdot
Alcohol:
Alcohol %
14.5
Cellaring Potential:
Aging
Exquisite at four years of age. 20+ years for elegant and savoury aged Cabernet Sauvignon.
Harvested:
Harvest Date
6 - 27 March 2020
Oak:
Fermentation
French oak barrique 54% new, 46% 2-4 year old, 18 months
TA:
Acid
5.8g/L
pH:
pH
3.61
Residual Sugar:
Residual Sugar
0.44g/L
Bottled:
Bottling Date
21 January 2022
2020 TOM CULLITY
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Reviews

  • 99 Points

    Ray Jordan - WA Business News

    I expected this to be good, and it has delivered. I see the power and concentration of the 2018 and the elegance of the 2019 with the restraint of the 2017. Beautiful, perfumed fruit with tremendous intensity. The palate is totally seamless with a velvety feel to it. So vibrant with an energy and drive that takes it effortlessly to a very long finish. Everything and everything in its place. The intensity of the blackcurrant and red fruit combination is extraordinary, yet it delivers with finesse and poise. Pretty and at the same time powerful, with a degree of delicacy and grace. A great, great wine.

  • 98 Points

    Erin Larkin - Robert Parker Wine Advocate

    The 2020 season in Margaret River was an interesting one: warm, low yielding and very early (not as early as 2024!), with great marri blossom aromas and responsible for quite tannic, lushly fruited wines. Generally regarded as very good to excellent, the season had the potential to produce wines that were firm and closed, yet it didn't. So here, the 2020 Tom Cullity Cabernet Sauvignon Malbec is floral on the nose, with raspberry pip, rose petals, pink peppercorn, sumac, clove, a hint of sandalwood and sun-dried kelp. In the mouth, it is everything the nose promises, with a splay of ductile tannin that bends and moves with the fruit as it progresses over the palate. This is a super release from a great year; it's very much in line stylistically with the 2018 and 2014 Tom Cullitys.

  • 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.

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