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Stay in touch with the latest news and happenings at Vasse Felix, in Margaret River and on tour around the world.
BY CHIEF VITICULTURIST BART MOLONY & CHIEF WINEMAKER VIRGINIA WILLCOCK
A mild season with no extremes, where yields, bunch weights and balance are a great news story. The growing season began with a cool dry spring, similar to the 2022 vintage. This delayed vine development timing by about 2-3 weeks, time we used to open canopies, especially to provide maximum sun exposure and warmth for red varieties, which paid off come veraison. When the heat finally did arrive in January, it wasn’t as severe as last year. Happily, the consistently dry and warm conditions saw the vines catch up nicely on their development. White veraison was delayed by 2-3 weeks, while Cabernet timing was approximately one week later than average. This year, veraison was quite a quick process; the Cabernet’s two-week transition was excellent for ripening fruit flavours evenly through the bunches. Overall, vineyard plots have shown excellent balance with more fruit and canopy, reflecting vine health and minimal heat stress from a milder season.
Following a dry winter and spring, sensible and sensitive irrigation intervention was implemented to assist some vines with carrying their crop and helping to build their capacity and resilience for the summer. Dry grown blocks have displayed great health. Chardonnay harvest began on 14 February with a hand harvest in the Home Vineyard. Chardonnays held bright acidity and developed sound flavour and ripeness. Chardonnay yields saw a dramatic increase following the past few vintages, particularly last year. This is the culmination of a major focus on reworking vines over the past few years, resulting in excellent vine health and berry size, especially for our Bernard clones. In addition, the first meaningful crops from young Gingin clone plantings were harvested in our Home and southern vineyards, and are showing significant promise for the future. The Chardonnay expression this year is a highlight for Virginia, but we don’t want to say too much, too soon!
Sauvignon Blanc was slower in its development and continued to be more delayed than Chardonnay. It was harvested with excellent flavour and good acidity. Healthy bunch weights were a highlight. Semillon yields were down slightly but quality is excellent. The warm and dry conditions have been great for red varieties, which are displaying very juicy and concentrated berries, that are very “edible” at early stages of ripening. Shiraz from our Walcliffe based was harvested beautifully ripe, showcasing the classic Margaret River Syrah style with incredible vibrance and spice.
Cabernet is thoroughly enjoying this mild and moderate ripening. There has been no Marri blossom this year, resulting in the largest netting program since 2019 at Vasse Felix, often requiring us to assemble multiple teams to remove nets in the 24 hours before harvest. At the start of the season, it wasn’t Silver Eyes, but rather parrots, wattlebirds and kangaroos that were hungry for our grapes. However, heading towards Cabernet harvest time, the Silver Eyes were everywhere.
“A little drizzle once a week and you’re laughing,” says Bart Molony when it comes to rainfall during vintage. His weather control skills seem to be improving, with three small incidents in consecutive weeks in March. The most
significant was well-timed, the day after the white harvest was completed. The mornings, evenings and nights have been cool, and the peak temperatures during the days have been relatively small windows, so all in all, a very moderate season, ideal for gentle, consistent ripening, with no disease pressure due to dry conditions.
The majority of our Cabernet Sauvignon and Malbec plots were harvested prior to 10 April, and remaining small plots sat through some lovely Easter days and were harvested in a fine weather window between 10-14 April, living up to their predictable ripening pattern. Fruit is vibrant, with classic Margaret River Cabernet palate weight and tannin ripeness.
20/04/2023 at 12:35 PM
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Fittingly, one of the last hand-picks of Vintage 2023 took place in our original old vine Cabernet last week. Tom's Houghton clone Cabernet plots were harvested by our team beneath moody skies, and the quality looks excellent.
Grown on their original rootstocks on the ancient Ironstone gravel soils of our Home Vineyard, these vines have weathered all the grape-growing years known to Margaret River and remain strong with consistent yields and berries.
These old vines are our trusted indicator of quality for Margaret River Cabernet Sauvignon. Their experience of the vintage plays a crucial role in guiding the direction of each release of TOM CULLITY Cabernet Sauvignon Malbec.
15/04/2023 at 11:04 PM
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We are thrilled to be named in The Real Review's 2023 Top Wineries of Australia, placing in at #49, out of just shy of 350 Australian wineries. Now in its sixth year, judges tasted more than 10,000 wines over the past year, scoring them out of 100, and using the results for each winery’s best wines to collate the Top Wineries list for 2023.
We were proud to see we were listed amongst good company, with all five WA wineries in the top 50 proudly from Margaret River. A huge congratulations to our regional neighbours; Stella Bella (#8), Cullen (#15), Xanadu (#21) and Howard Park (#40) - a true testament to the region's quality of wine.
Vasse Felix was remarked to have "refined and age-worthy chardonnay and cabernet at several price levels, all excellent. Margaret River’s first winery, established in 1967, is also putting extra effort into the sauvignon blanc and shiraz. Filius label, at $29, is extra value".
Critic Huon Hooke said, "[the] Heytesbury Chardonnay 2021 and Tom Cullity Cabernet Sauvignon Malbec 2018 led the field for Vasse Felix this year, followed by the regular Cabernet Sauvignon 2020 and then the regular Chardonnay 2021 and Shiraz 2019."
We are humbled to see that our wines and region are so highly regarded by this team of respected wine critics, the full list is available HERE.
12/04/2023 at 2:09 PM
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The first harvest of our prestigious heritage vines took place this morning, with Tom's N1 Malbec hand-harvested. Rare and fine, the team remarked on the outstanding quality of these fruit parcels which arrived safely back at the winery to be destemmed and into fermenters.
The harvest of Tom's Cabernet Sauvignon is imminent, as the grapes continue ripening, finessing their compelling flavour profile.
05/04/2023 at 6:00 PM
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Introducing our new gallery exhibition from the Janet Holmes à Court Collection; a collection focus on Abstract Art by Women in the 1980's featuring many pieces which have rarely been on display.
This selection reveals the substantial contribution women artists have made to the field of abstract art in Australia. Women artists have played a fundamental role in the development of abstract art throughout the 20th century. The specific period of focus for this exhibition is the 1980s and the works span across painting, collage, ceramics and sculpture, to celebrate and acknowledge the crucial significance of abstract art by women in Australia in the 1980s.
Now showing in the gallery until 18 June 2023.
02/04/2023 at 3:30 PM
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The winery team began trialling large format oak in 2019, which quickly took our Premier Sauvignon Blanc to new heights through experimentation.
Experimentation in the winery continues each vintage, in a bid to champion discovery and unearth a better understanding of vineyard plots and their personalities. The 2023 vintage has been no different, introducing another three 3000L French oak foudres for trials of Chardonnay fermentation.
Having previously not fermented Chardonnay in anything larger than puncheons, the team earmarked a plot of Gingin Chardonnay from our Adams Road Vineyard for experimentation, which, oftentimes contributes to our Premier Chardonnay. Fermentation took a little longer to kick off, however beautiful autolytic characters began to emerge once it did, with subtle hints of new oak. Given the unique shapes of the foudres, a gentle natural convention occurs and continues for several days once stirred, allowing solids to coalesce with the wine.
2023 trials are looking promising with exciting prospects for our single plot wines due to the benefits of keeping the same plot together throughout fermentation and maturation, harnessing the induvial characteristics of a unique vineyard plot, while also looking at the sustainability of the oak program by increasing the longevity of vessels.
Peruse stills below, featuring foudres, our battonage program, and trials in alternative fermentation vessels.
31/03/2023 at 6:03 PM
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The unsung heroes of vintage are our overnight harvest crew. This team works through the night to harvest crisp, pristine fruit in the coolest hours, helping keep the rhythms of vintage moving.
They typically start their shift at 11.30pm and finish at around 3am, ending their workday with a morning delivery of fruit to the winery, where activity runs 24 hours too.
22/03/2023 at 4:22 PM
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The Chardonnay harvest continued into the fourth week of vintage as our teams of pickers wrapped up the hand harvest of the chameleon of Margaret River.
A glorious Margaret River sunrise greeted our pickers this week in the Gnarawary Vineyard, the region has been graced with warm, sunny days which have negated the risk of disease pressure. Pristine bunches of Gingin clone Chardonnay were picked from GYD1, a plot renowned for its parcels that often make their way into our Premier Chardonnay due to their power and wild complexity.
07/03/2023 at 2:07 PM
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It has been a busy time in the Winery with the last Chardonnay fruit from the Home Vineyard coming in this week, ready to be whole bunch pressed and racked into fine French oak for wild fermentation. Below are some scenes from the TSD1 harvest, a plot of Gingin clone Chardonnay planted in 2018 in Toms Blocks in the Home Vineyard, with fruit looking fresh and lively.
Below, our A3 and C1 Home Vineyard Valley Blocks were hand-picked, chilled and then whole bunch pressed to create free run juice with the perfect soilds contribution. The magic of getting the right amount solids lies in carefully breaking a small number of berries to stimulate the start of maceration, before transferring the unclarified juice to barrels. This process of whole bunch pressing is integral to the Vasse Felix Chardonnay style, allowing us to achieve the high solids that contribute such beautiful savoury complexities to the final wine.
24/02/2023 at 5:31 PM
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Vintage 2023 has begun, with the first pick taking place this morning in our Gibraltar Chardonnay blocks in the Home Vineyard, with scenes below.
Fruit is looking pristine and we are excited to unearth the 2023 expressions of these parcels which often make it into our Premier Chardonnay due to their elegance, power and wild complexity.
19/02/2023 at 3:41 PM
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