VASSE FELIX 'TOM CULLITY' CAB/MALBEC 2015 750ML

The 2015 vintage Cabernets in Margaret River were strange wines to review upon release. They felt inherently backward and restrained and have only in the past year or so begun to climb out of themselves and show their potential. Here, the 2015 Tom Cullity Cabernet Sauvignon Malbec is elegant and subtle, a cool reflection of the mild vintage conditions and long growing season. It's a beautiful wine, a dark horse in the lineup.

The third vintage of Tom Cullity is the best to date. This premium bottling offers threads of graphite, currants, black olives, nori, tomato leaf and roasted green peppers. These flavors, along with spicy French oak, are tightly woven with fine chalky tannins. Power and elegance share the limelight, and linearity trumps roundness and richness. Cellar through 2039.

The 2015 Cullity is all about finesse and power with subtle aromas and flavors of currants, plums and autumnal leaves. Full body and firm, chewy tannins that give the wine length and freshness. Just keeps on growing on the palate. Better after 2022, but already a gem to taste. Drink in 2022 and onwards. Screw cap.

The higher proportion of Cabernet Sauvignon comes through with an extra depth of blackcurrant and leaf character on the palate. Clean, fresh and lively, there is great lift here. Elegant, with lots of purity, this is not a blockbuster style, but rather a refined, mid-term blend with wide appeal.

Shows power and intensity to the fresh, juicy black cherry and plum flavors, with notes of black licorice, loam, toasted herb, black tea and orange zest on a frame of dense, muscular tannins. Cabernet Sauvignon and Malbec. Drink now through 2033.