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.
95 POINTS
Erin Larkin - Robert Parker Wine Advocate
The 2023 Sauvignon Blanc is, as usual, far more than your garden-variety Sauvignon Blanc. Winemaker Virginia Willcock is clever, curious and adventurous, and these attributes shine through in her winemaking. This wine fermented in a combination of vessels, including 65% in French oak formats—foudre, puncheon and barrique—14% in open fermenters and 21% in static fermenters. Fermentation was carried out exclusively with wild yeast. The wine was matured for 12 months in seasoned French oak, including 46% puncheon, 31% foudre, 19% barrique and 4% demi-muid, before a further three months of blended maturation prior to bottling. The 2023 season in Margaret River was marvelous—benevolent, long and mild—and the wines produced in this vintage will be among the best ever produced in this region. Interestingly, they are slow to evolve in bottle, though I look forward to tasting them all again, many more times, before my time is up. They'll only get better as time wears on. So here, the 2023 Sauvignon Blanc is complex and restrained, and none of the time in oak evident as "oakiness." Rather, imbued layers and herbal notes are woven through every aspect of the wine. It has bitter amaro-esque herbs, preserved lemon rind, white peach, coastal sage, hints of bay and all manner of other unexpected, exciting notes. I would love to see this in a few years. 13% alcohol, sealed under screw cap.
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
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
Shanteh Wale - Winepilot
This boosts lemon rind and preserved apple skin, some safflower oil and canola. A hint at pine nut richness, some honeysuckle and jackfruit skin. This shows the diversity of mid term bottle aged Sauvignon Blanc, expressing its unique shape and agile weight. A wine that could hold its own on the table in a wide rim glass, accompanying oven roasted birds, root vegetables and sauerkraut. Drink now or cellar for 2-3 years further to highlight more biscuit and nutty tones.
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.
