Moss Wood 1999 Chardonnay
Wine Facts
| Harvested: | 2/3/1999 |
| Bottled: | 17/1/2000 |
| Released: | 3/4/2000 |
| Yield: | 6.89 t/ha |
| Baume: | 13.40 |
| Alcohol: | 14.50% |
| Vintage Rating: | 10/10 |
SOLD OUT
Moss Wood 2023 Chardonnay – Fergal Gleeson, Great Wine Blog
The nose tells you that you are in for something complex and delicious. A lightning rod of refreshing acid runs through this wine robed in lime, grapefruit and textured tannins. The Moss Wood house style is traditionally a rich and full bodied Wilyabrup Chardonnay. Perhaps it’s the cooler vintage…
Moss Wood 2023 Chardonnay – Ray Jordan, Ray Jordan Wine
One of the best chardies yet from Moss Wood, and that’s saying something with the quality of wines over the years. The nose is an immediately captivating combo of lemon curd, quince and cashew with just a subtle lift of zest. The palate has a sprightly energy with a crisp…
Moss Wood 2022 Chardonnay – Cassandra Charlick, Decanter
Creamy nougat, with a simmering, flinty minerality and lemon curd on the nose. There’s gentle yet opulent oak spice, a little char and pretty white florals lifting things up to craft an elegant and refined picture. In its youth the oak is still persistent, but time should nestle this further…
Moss Wood 2022 Chardonnay – Jane Faulkner – James Halliday, The Wine Companion
It falls into the big, rich and ripe camp. Bold flavours of dried pears and apricots with some apple compote dusted in warm spices and butter. Lashings of oak, cedary sweet and spicy, which is bolstering the palate even more. It’s a solid wine, and no doubt it has a…
Moss Wood 2021 Chardonnay – Jane Faulkner – James Halliday, The Wine Companion
Fans of bold, rich and ripe chardonnay will relish this wine. Off a cooler vintage, so thankfully there’s plenty of acidity here to offset those full flavours of ripe white peach, mango, and preserved lemon rind with loads of oak adding baking spices and woodsy characters. A hint of butterscotch,…
Moss Wood 2022 Chardonnay – Erin Larkin, The Wine Advocate
The 2022 Chardonnay leads with a nose redolent of white chocolate praline, roasted/salted/crushed cashews, orange oil, vanilla pod and wafer. In the mouth, the phenolics serve to almost balance the opulent fruit; this is a huge, pillowy wine of substance and volume. It tastes the way custard cooking on the…
Moss Wood Ribbon Vale 2023 Chardonnay – Ray Jordan, Ray Jordan Wine
A recent addition to the Moss Wood portfolio showing the great strides that have been taken in managing the Ribbon Vale vineyard. This is probably the best release yet. It was a superb season and its shows in a wine of elegance and refinement, yet with layered complexity and sophistication….
WA Wine Review 2024
Ray Jordan “Moss Wood is a family-owned wine company and a pioneer of the Margaret River region. Planted in 1969, Moss Wood is an important founding estate of Margaret River. Clare and Keith Mugford, as viticulturalists, winemakers and proprietors, have been tending the vineyard and making wine at Moss Wood…
Moss Wood 2022 Chardonnay – Ray Jordan, Ray Jordan Wine
Another cracking good chardonnay from Moss Wood. The aroma is immediately engaging with a floral lemon scent and a slight vanilla bean essence. Subtle cut lime and pear edge into add some further complexity. The palate is a powerful statement with a deeply intense creamy stone fruit and edgy lemon…
Moss Wood 2022 Chardonnay – Fergal Gleeson, Great Wine Blog
The Moss Wood house style is rich and at the complex end of the Margaret River spectrum. Sourced from the historic Wilyabrup estate vineyard, there is no attempt to force a lean or mineral Chardonnay from the site. It’s full bodied but shapely. Lime and nectarine fruit flavours, marmalade and…
Tasting Notes
The 1999 Moss Wood Chardonnay is one of the most complex white wines made at Moss Wood. It has medium deep straw colour with some green tints; and ripe peach, melon and tropical fruit characters on the nose with some nutty, roast cashew overtones. We also see some green tinges, grapefruit and quince and some cinnamon and spicy vanillin aromas. It has initial fruit sweetness, great richness and concentration of flavour featuring a spicy, melony mid-palate, neat integration of fruit and oak and great length. This is a full-bodied white that is intense, powerful and complex and yet shows underlying finesse.
Vintage Notes
The 1999 vintage was a remarkable one for Margaret River. Conditions during the ripening season were ideal with mild summer temperatures proving a great lead up to vintage. Hopes were high at the start of harvest which was a week later than expected. No rain was threatening, the marri gums were blossoming and so bird damage was unlikely to be a problem. Temperature continued to be perfect during vintage, fruit was in good condition and was picked at optimum ripeness.
Production Notes
The mendoza clone (known as 'gingin') makes up about ninety per cent of Moss Wood's chardonnay grapes while the rest are Californian clones which appear a little neutral and lacking in complexity. Leeuwin Estate viticulturist, John Brocksopp, dismissively refers to them as 'the trebbiano clones'. For the first time at Moss Wood, these different clones were fermented separately.
The more neutral clones were whole bunch pressed, racked into barrels without settling, and allowed to ferment with a full indigenous culture. It was decided not to use this batch unless happy with it. However, we were was satisfied with the experiment and chose to use this portion in the final blend.
The mendoza clone was made by the method that has become traditional at Moss Wood. The grapes were crushed and cold pressed immediately and were then allowed to settle for 72 hours before the clear juice (including 2% solids) was racked into the fermentation tank. Indigenous yeast strains started the process of fermentation and when the wine had reached 10 degrees beaume, pure yeast culture was added. The chardonnay was then racked into barrels until after the fermentation had finished.
In order to equalise all barrels, the wine (including the 'clonal batch') was racked into a blending tank. After blending, the wine was returned to barrels. Battonage, the practice of stirring the lees, is used to produce a wine that shows better integration of fruit and oak and greater finesse. It takes place every day during the primary fermentation. From that point until the wine begins to undergo malolactic fermentation, battonage takes place once a week. After this, the wine is left unstirred on its lees in barrel for 11 months. The wine is then protein stabilised, cold stabilised, lightly filtered and bottled.
Cellaring Notes
Although immediately approachable and immensely appealing, this wine will improve over the next three years and can be cellared with confidence for up to eleven years. Optimum drinking 2011.