I have been a long time fan of Vasse Felix wines going back to the late 80s and early 90s. This high quality West Australian wine producer is relatively young for a winery, opened in 1967, Vasse Felix was one of the pioneers of the Margaret River wine region.

There was a time I liked their Classic Dry Red, but not so much their Cab Merlot. That was some time ago, but I can’t remember opening a bottle recently. The Classic Dry Red is still around and the cabernet merlot has been repositioned in the Filius range. The Filius chardonnay is a sub-$30 wine, so it is well priced for what you get and does not infringe on the Premier range.

Instead, Vasse Felix released the Filius range in 2013 if I remember correctly, so I have preferred these options when selecting their budget options. I cannot say I was that impressed with the cabernet sauvignon, but the chardonnay worked for me. The cabernet sauvignon isn’t bad by any degree, I had just become accustomed to their premium wines.

When I checked the technical notes for this vintage I was surprised to learn they used 13% new French barriques, 14% one year old barriques with the remainder between two to five years old. The cellaring potential is up to 2025, so this isn’t a long lasting chardonnay, but it has some legs. Despite the oak, I see this is a fresh wine with stone fruit flavours with a hint of peach in the aftertaste.