2020 Tom Cullity Cabernet Sauvignon Malbec
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Tasting notes
This is an impressive wine. It’s incredibly intense, yet with effortless finesse – gorgeously elegant with mulberry fruit, bright cassis and plump red fruit alongside floral aromatics and the slightest hint of herbaceous peppermint – or pepi tree (native to Margaret River). The palate is weightless and long, the acidity driving on to a long, savoury finish, laced with freshly crumbled earth and dry leaves. The whole thing is so complete – graceful and satisfying, guaranteed to offer more with age, yet hard to resist now. Aged in 54% new oak for 18 months, a blend of 81% Cabernet Sauvignon, 16% Malbec and 3% Petit Verdot.
Critic scores
Average Score
Ray Jordan, WA Business News
Erin Larkin, Wine Advocate
More reviews and scores
The 2020 Tom Cullity is a classic Cabernet Sauvignon, offering a confident and robust blend of blackcurrant and gravel laced with rubbed sage and inky tones. Deep-set chalky tannins underpin lavish levels of flavor before the palate fleshes out on the finish. The 2020 is approachable now, but there is plenty of aging potential.
The 2020 Tom Cullity Cabernet Sauvignon Malbec is looking so good today, at just five years from its harvest. The tannins are shapely and permeate the fruit characters on the palate, while the length of flavor persists long after the wine has gone. This feels immediately more approachable and succulent than the other vintages tasted here before it, and while the wine may live long into the future, it's offering some very attractive arguments for drinking today. Go as you will.
Deep set feel here led by fine cedar and graphite before tilled earth, bay leaf, pressed florals, redcurrant, blackcurrant and black olive. It's savoury and robust with restrained power. The palate holds a similar aesthetic with good drive and concentration - cassis, bay leaf, black cherry, dark chocolate. Powerful tannins, they claw at the mouth with graininess and confidence, putting up a firm frame around a long finish. A more powerful and brooding Tom Cullity begging for time to unfurl in the cellar.
About the producer
Vasse Felix was the first winery in Margaret River, founded in 1967. Today, it is one of Western Australia’s – and the New World’s – most respected names, crafting outstanding, cool-climate Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon from this remote region, south of Perth.