Moss Wood 2019 Semillon

Vintage Notes

Having spent much of this newsletter waxing lyrical about the 2017 and 2018 vintages, we now turn to the 2019 Semillon.  From the outset, we at Moss Wood are immensely proud of this wine and its quality.  However, technically-speaking, it is the most challenging of the 43 Semillons we have produced.

Initially, the season went quite well but as Spring progressed, the rain kept coming.  Through the flowering period, which was just over a week behind the average, courtesy of cool, wet conditions, we had significant rain on 5 days, all interrupting the process.  Even more difficult were the 9 days when the temperature dropped below 8°C and especially on 30^th November, when it fell to 2.9°C.

The net result of all this delightful weather was a significant reduction in yield. The bunch weights were down by 36% to 109 grams per bunch.  However, the fun didn’t end there.

Readers may be aware the Margaret River wine region can suffer significant losses from bird attack, especially silvereyes, although the problem is ameliorated when the Red Gums have a good flowering.  This year the blossom was literally nonexistent and the silvereyes were starving.  We use nets to keep the birds out and they are very effective, especially when they are only moderately hungry.  Normally there is no need to cover all the vineyard and as long as we establish a perimeter of around 30 metres, the birds won’t fly over the nets to the unprotected crop.  In 2019, just about every berry not protected by net was attacked.  This also meant any sections where the nets may have been blown up by the wind, or where there were holes, the birds got in and created havoc.  They even did their old trick of dive-bombing the nets and bouncing off in a desperate attempt to get to the fruit.

The damage to the Semillon was so bad, we nearly didn’t pick it.  There remained some sound fruit and we had to weigh up the difficulty and cost of the process, given the degree of care required in picking and sorting. It was tedious and time consuming to say the least.

In a fine effort by the Shawkat and his team of Hazari pickers, assisted by the Moss Wood vintage crew, all the bunches were picked and meticulously sorted and all damaged fruit left on the ground.  Even Clare and Keith got their hands dirty!  Once delivered to the winery, the fruit was further selected to clean out the last of the damage and then it was whole-bunch pressed to extract the juice.

When we weighed all the sorted bins, we had the grand total of just over 5 tonnes of grapes giving a mighty yield of 3.25 tonnes per hectare, some 69% below average!  There were wry smiles all round.

What must not be lost in this tale of woe was the fact the Summer had been delightful, with consistently mild temperatures and the Semillon had ripened beautifully, if somewhat slowly.  In the end, it was harvested on 28^th March, some 17 days later than usual but had reached 13.1° Baume, slightly ahead of its average of 12.7.