Three years ago, I had a sit-down tasting with Virginia Willcock from Margaret River’s Vasse Felix. This past week, Virginia was back visiting Vancouver, and I had a chance, along with a few other wine people, to taste the latest releases of their Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon Malbec wines. This was quite informal with us standing around Virginia with her pouring us each a sample of wine and then talking about it. Here are my brief notes of what Virginia covered about the winery, the region, and the wines, together with my wine tasting notes.
Terroir and Climate
Margaret River boasts extraordinary microclimatic stability, setting it apart from almost every other world-class grape-growing region. Situated on a narrow cape surrounded on three sides by the ocean, the district remains insulated from violent weather extremes like El Niño or La Niña. Instead, its macroclimate is governed by the Southern Annular Mode and the Indian Ocean Dipole, yielding unmatched vintage consistency.
Geologically, the region rests upon a subterranean granite and gneiss ridge dated between 1,100 and 1,400 million years old. Some of the most ancient weathered landmass on Earth. Unlike regions shaped by recent volcanic or alpine activity, Margaret River features no major mountain ranges to block maritime influence, save for a single 1,100-meter hill far to the south. The surrounding low-lying green expanses represent ancient ocean deposits filling in the Scott River and Perth coastal plains, leaving the raised granite ridge exposed to constant maritime airflow. While warm Mediterranean sunshine drives complete phenolic ripeness, constant afternoon sea breezes act as a natural air-conditioner. Nighttime temperatures drop rapidly, keeping vines from over-accumulating sugar or suffering heat stress, thereby preserving pristine natural acidity, structural tension, and vivid aromatic purity.
This maritime cooling effect translates into remarkably consistent vintage conditions. They can reliably deliver elegant, medium-bodied reds and tension-filled whites year after year without suffering the extreme thermal spikes or erratic harvests seen in landlocked continental climates.
The Icon Legacy: Tom Cullity
At the apex of the Vasse Felix red portfolio stands its flagship icon bottling; Tom Cullity Cabernet Sauvignon Malbec. We tasted the 2022 vintage. Dr. Tom Cullity, the founding pioneer, planted the estate’s first vines in 1967, so this wine carries a profound viticultural lineage. The plant material stems from pre-phylloxera massale selection vines imported into Western Australia in the 1850s via South Africa and Europe.
For those of you that do not know the term, massale selection is a traditional viticultural practice where winemakers propagate new grapevines by taking cuttings from multiple, exceptional old vines within an existing vineyard, rather than using commercially grown clones from a single mother plant.
Crucially, these heritage vines were planted directly on their own roots in 1.1 to 1.4 billion-year-old estate soil, completely bypassing the grafted American rootstocks used in nearly every other major wine region today due to phylloxera. Derived exclusively from the winery’s original 1960s home plots (now approaching 60 years of age), these un-grafted vines yield fruit of quiet power, structure, and extraordinary cellaring potential.
Vasse Felix’s Chardonnay program is grounded in micro-lot selection and clonal diversity across its estate sites. The winemaking team balances low-yielding heritage massale selections, most notably Western Australia’s famous, highly aromatic Gin-Gin clone, alongside select French clones. The Gin-Gin clone represents the majority of Chardonnay in Margaret River and is recognized as a unique clone specific to Margaret River.
Idée Fixe Sparkling
This sparkling wine is new to me, as it is new to the market. It is not made in the winery where Virginia crafts her wines. It is from a different winery located south of their main winery and made by a different winemaker. The wine is crafted entirely from estate-grown Chardonnay using the traditional Méthode Traditionnelle. It will come to the market on occasion for things such as the holidays, not as a year-round listing, according to Virginia.
My Wine Tasting Notes
We had three tiers of wines to taste. The entry-level, everyday drinking wine is “Filius,” which means “son,” so an offspring of the parent wine, which is Tom Cullity. Vasse Felix is the mid-tier, and Tom Cullity is the top tier wine in their portfolio.
Vasse Felix Tom Cullity Cabernet Sauvignon Malbec 2022 (BC $206.98)
87% Cabernet Sauvignon and 13% Malbec. 100% Whole Berry, Wild Fermented. Matured in French oak barriques (65% new), 18 months.
Appearance: Deeply coloured ruby garnet hue in the glass.
Nose: Medium to medium-plus aromatic intensity characterized by juicy berry and blackberry aromas, accompanied by a subtle influence of oak.
Palate: Lighter-bodied, lean, and dry on the palate, carrying juicy berry fruit flavours and integrated oak through the mid-palate.
Supported by fairly high acidity and restrained, softer tannins that sit back. A distinct hint of pepperiness emerges toward the finish, leading to a medium-plus to long length.
Rating: 
–
Vasse Felix Cabernet Sauvignon 2023 (BC $63.98)
88% Cabernet Sauvignon, 9% Malbec, 2% Petit Verdot, and 1% Merlot.
Appearance: Clear garnet colour with approximately 75% opacity, allowing direct sight straight through the glass.
Nose: Medium intensity aromas dominated by black fruit, ripe blackberries, and a gentle touch of sweet spice.
Palate: Up front on the palate, bright capsicum and juicy berries lead into a very light and lean mouthfeel. Driven by strong, medium-plus acidity that produces a tart, puckering sensation on the tongue. Notes of pepperiness or hotness build mid-palate toward a drying finish of medium-plus length.
Rating:
Vasse Felix Filius Cabernet Sauvignon 2024 (BC $32.99)
86% Cabernet Sauvignon and 14% Malbec.
Appearance: Garnet colour with roughly 90% opacity.
Nose: Lighter nose featuring sweet spices such as cinnamon, combined with plum, black fruit, and a cranberry-like tart aroma.
Palate: Dry, lighter-bodied, and lean on the palate, driven by tart berry fruit flavours and a subtle hint of nutmeg. Medium-plus to high acidity that maintains a crisp tartness throughout. Medium-intensity tannins noticeably grip the back of the tongue, transitioning into a grippy, drying finish of medium-plus length.
Rating: 
–
Vasse Felix Filius Chardonnay 2025 (BC $32.99)
Appearance: Clear appearance displaying a medium lemon colour.
Nose: Distinctly smoky, toasty, and flinty aromatic profile.
Palate: Dry and medium-bodied with a soft, leaner mouthfeel that retains a touch of roundness. Flavours highlight flint, oak, light tropical fruit, subtle butterscotch, and a slight bitterness derived from grape stems or oak barrels. Medium acidity, leading into a dry finish marked by persistent stem or barrel bitterness across a medium-plus length.
Rating:
Vasse Felix Chardonnay 2024 (BC ~$63.98 SPEC)
Appearance: Medium lemon colour in the glass.
Nose: Refined, lighter-intensity nose featuring aromas of sweet spices like nutmeg, butterscotch, and ripe or roasted pineapple.
Palate: Soft and round on the palate with pronounced flavours of butterscotch, tropical fruit, oak, subtle pepperiness, and mild oak bitterness. Despite the pronounced flavour intensity, the mouthfeel remains balanced at a medium weight rather than feeling heavy.
Medium acidity that harmonizes the oak and ripe fruit components through a smooth, medium-plus length finish.
Rating: –
Vasse Felix Heytesbury Chardonnay 2024 (BC ~$103 SPEC)
Hand-harvested, chilled, whole bunches pressed. Wild ferment in stainless steel tanks. Matured in 225 L French oak barriques
53% new, 47% 1-3 years old for 16 months; 10 months in oak, 6 months blended in tank.
Appearance: It presents a clear medium lemon colour.
Nose: Light aromatic intensity, offering delicate notes of butterscotch, oak, and tropical fruit.
Palate: Medium-bodied, smooth, and soft with a slightly thicker mouthfeel. Flavours of oak, tropical fruit, and butterscotch are balanced by mild oak bitterness and a subtle background pepperiness. Well-structured palate balance resolving into a medium-plus to long finish.
Rating:
Idée Fixe Premier Brut Blanc de Blancs (BC ~$63.98 SPEC)
Appearance: Bright lemon colour.
Nose: Exceptionally fresh and fruity, brimming with crisp, delicious apple varieties.
Palate: Dry and medium-bodied on the palate, delivering abundant fresh apple flavour alongside distinct notes of bitter apple skin and apple seed toward the end. High acidity combined with a medium-sized, biting bubble provides a lively acidic prickle on the tongue. As the effervescence fades fairly quickly, lingering notes of apple and an oaky bitterness carry across a medium-plus length.
Rating: –
Vasse Felix is a certified member of Sustainable Winegrowing Australia.
Both Filius wines are available at BC Liquor stores. The Vasse Felix Cabernet Sauvignon and Tom Cullity Cabernet Sauvignon Malbec are available at Everything Wine stores. You may need to check with your local wine shop if they carry any of the SPEC wines.
Thank you to Virginia Willcock for speaking to us about their latest wines and the invitation by Pacific Wine & Spirits for my invitation.
