2023 Vasse Felix Sauvignon Blanc

95 POINTS

Jeni Port - Winepilot

Once upon a time, this Sauvignon might have been labelled “fumé,” after all, it has been fermented wild in large format French oak foudres and puncheons with some full skin contact. In other words, the use of oak might normally bring “fume” to the label, but times change and now we see a range of Sauvignons that don’t need any special introduction – just taste them. Here, taste will take you to a Sauvignon starting to show some development as a three-year-old in gold hues and flavours built around bottle age that move into honeyed baked quince, citrus and stone fruits with a savoury almond cream appeal. This is a serious Sauvignon, a partner to food, a wine with gravitas showing the grape in a serious light. Grippy tannins are in play together with a lemony bright acidity, but the scene stealer is the depth of flavour – yellow peach, stone fruits, spiced pear, quince, buttered toast with exotic touches of lemongrass and pea shoots. Complex? You bet. Once you get your head around a Sauvignon with some bottle age, the flavours can really sing.

95 POINTS

Jane Faulkner - Halliday Wine Companion

Yes, there’s a touch of colour, an amber-gold, and appealing chewy phenolics because this is fermented wild in French oak foudres and puncheons, with a portion of skin-contact. This creates all that texture and grip and interest. It’s not a fruity, tropical, boring drink, it’s complex, smokin’ and an excellent food wine. It’s all savoury, and more about the palate with raw quince tannins, dabs of spice, crisp acidity and finishes very dry. Sure, it’s not for everyone, just more for me then.

94 POINTS

Ray Jordan

A different, more complex take on sauvignon blanc. Wild yeast fermented in large French oak foudres and puncheons with full skins contact. Texturally pleasing and complex, with pale golden colour, nutty fruit, and a brioche-like character, yet still retaining crispness. Far beyond the typical variety expression. s

94 POINTS

James Suckling

Such a unique wine. Aromas of passion-fruit curd and rose petals with grapefruit pith, grilled pineapple, guavas and apple blossoms. The textural, rounded palate shows near-powdery tannins, underlying mineral tension and an almost salty, mouthwatering finish. Full-skin fermentation. Excellent.

94 POINTS

Cyndal Petty - Winepilot

This sits closer to a well-made skin-contact white than a Margaret River Sauvignon Blanc, and is better for it. Dried pear, honey water, palo santo and mango seed lead. A reminder that Vasse Felix can be as creative as it is classic. In the mouth, there’s a contained wildness, shaped by fermentation in oak, with 26% on skins. Plenty of tannin, with notes of tonka bean, cinnamon and apple seed, all held together with saline viscosity. Drink with Indian pani puri.

93 POINTS

Campbell Mattinson - The Wine Front

Serious Sauvignon Blanc. It’s complex, textural, powerful and well sustained. In fact it’s so complex that it’s difficult to describe the flavour. The word funky comes to mind but in saying that it’s not flinty or dirty; exotic fruit might be a better-though-still-not-perfect descriptor. Cooked apples, musk, pineapple, woodsmoke and earth; now we’re getting closer. It’s a wine of genuine flavour, genuine texture and genuine presence. I can see it maturing well too.