Stay in touch with the latest news and happenings at Vasse Felix, in Margaret River and on tour around the world.
INGREDIENTS
Lamb
1 x 2-2.5kg lamb leg
Sea salt
Freshly cracked black pepper
Lamb Rub
150ml extra virgin olive oil
Zest of one lemon
20g rosemary
10g thyme
10g tarragon
2tbs Dijon mustard
10 x cloves of garlic
Sauce Paloise
*Tarragon vinegar, prepare 24hrs prior
200ml white wine vinegar
20g tarragon
5 x peppercorns
6 x egg yolks
*50ml tarragon vinegar
50ml warm water
20ml fresh lemon juice
250g ghee (melt, set aside, keep warm)
20g chopped mint
Salt to taste
PREP 24 HOURS BEFORE
To prepare tarragon vinegar, place all tarragon vinegar ingredients in a pot and bring to boil, take off the heat, place into a container and store overnight in the fridge. Strain for use in Sauce Paloise.
METHOD
Preheat the oven to 160°C. Season the lamb well with salt and pepper. Then seal it off in a large pan on medium/high heat until golden. Place the lamb on wire rack in a roasting tray and set aside.
Combine all lamb rub ingredients in food processor and blend for a couple of minutes. Brush the rub over the lamb and place the lamb in the oven. Set aside remaining lamb rub.
Roast lamb for one hour, occasionally brushing with the lamb rub as you turn it. Test the meat with a thermometer placed in the thickest part of the cut. The temperature should be 55°C. Rest the lamb for 20 minutes prior to serving.
To prepare the Sauce Paloise, put a pot of water on to simmer. Place the egg yolks, tarragon vinegar, warm water and half of the lemon juice into a heatproof bowl that will fit on top of the pot. Place the bowl over the pot of water and whisk until the mixture becomes thick, remove from the heat. Slowly add the ghee in a steady stream while whisking continuously until all ghee is incorporated. Mix in the remaining lemon juice and mint, season to taste.
Set aside, warm and covered until serving. Enjoy with a glass of 2020 Vasse Felix Cabernet Sauvignon.
On Friday 5 May, we explored the world of Margaret River Cabernet Sauvignon, tasting unfinished Cabernet barrel samples from the 2022 vintage.
Over 50 Margaret River producers generously shared almost 100 Cabernet barrel samples for the annual tasting, providing a wealth of invaluable insight into the incredible 2022 vintage.
Tim Shand of Voyager and Lee Haselgrove, Consultant Viticulturist, led the discussion on the vintage samples, with input from our own Chief Winemaker Virginia Willcock.
A dry and warm summer, with sustained warmth day and night through December, January and February, possibly influenced by another La Niña season. A warm and rapid veraison for reds in early February was ideal and saw the Cabernet’s desirable ripe flavours pronounce themselves quickly, resulting in a low yielding vintage, primarily due to spring conditions over the past two years.
Broadly in this warmer year, Margaret River Cabernet Sauvignon is showing incredible fruit power. Tim shared his insights with attendees around restraint in winemaking, to really let the power of fruit shine through.
Excitement is mounting for the release of the 2019 TOM CULLITY as the first of the critic reviews roll in.
Awarded 98 points and named "Brilliant" by Ray Jordan, the new release also received praise from Angus Hughson (Winepilot) who pronounced the 2019 a "Fred Astaire vintage; fine, detailed, ultra-precise and will surprise with its longevity."
Explore the latest reviews in full below. Offically available May 1, we'll be sharing more details on this delicate and concentrated vintage soon, including a very special TOM CULLITY takeover at the Estate. In the meantime, explore the story of the TOM CULLITY here.
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98 Points
Ray Jordan
Winepilot
"This wine shows the benefit of an extra year in the bottle. It’s coming together really well. Not the perfume of the 2018, but there is structure and poise here. Pronounced seaweed nori aroma with blackcurrant fruitiness and slightly toasty oak. This was a vintage that continues to reveal itself and should never be overlooked. It has such a seamless and slinky integrated palate that it just coasts through effortlessly to a sustained long finish. A beautiful medium bodied wine. Normally this wine gets a small amount of petit verdot but because of the cooler vintage, none was included in the 2019. You really get a sense of the prettiness and purity plus the detail in the wine when you get to the end of the glass. Brilliant."
98 Points
Tyson Stelzer
Wine Business Magazine
"I love the purity and restraint of the cool, longripening season. Tom Cullity bears a classic confidence, founded in historic wines, captured in the mastery of Virginia Willcock, and heightened with 22% Malbec and 66% new French oak barriques. Even on its release at four years of age it’s still a tightly-clenched baby, yet bears every hallmark of greatness in time to come. I love the bright redcurrant mood of this season, the complexing nuances of bay and thyme, the perfumed lift of rose hip, the intricate, rigid frame of tannin endurance, and a finish that holds long and strong."
97 Points
Andrew Caillard MW
The Vintage Journal
"Medium deep crimson. Fragrant pure blackcurrant, chinotto, hint violet aromas with vanilla, roasted chestnut notes. Generously concentrated with ample cassis, roasted chestnut flavours, fine lacy/ grainy textures, lovely mid-palate richness/ volume and fresh well integrated acidity. Finishes chalky/ al dente firm with bittersweet notes. Impressively balanced wine with superb pure fruit definition, oak complexity and gentle tannin flow. This should age brilliantly well."
97 Points
James Suckling
Jamesuckling.com
"A dense and layered red with blackcurrants, mushroom, bark, and forest flowers with hints of fresh sage. Medium-bodied with a pretty core of currants and sweet berries with hints of dried and fresh herbs. So creamy and polished in texture. Extremely long and persistent. Drinks wonderfully now. Savory."
96 Points
Angus Hughson
Winepilot
"This genuine 2019 claret style from Margaret River, made up of 78% Cabernet Sauvignon and a hefty 22% Malbec, radiates with red and black currant fruits, a gentle leafy lift plus a powerful undertow of inky fruit and toasty oak in perfect balance. A mid weight, and elegant shape with juicy acidity and al-dente tannins underpin bright and pure blackberry and blackcurrant flavours with savoury touches of cocoa and cedar. Beautifully proportioned, it then delivers a wonderfully long finish with touches of tobacco and dried herbs. A Fred Astaire vintage; fine, detailed, ultra-precise and will surprise with its longevity."
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.