We have to report that Friday 25th February was Josh Bahen’s last day at Moss Wood. Josh would be very familiar to readers of our newsletter, and it is a reminder of how time flies to note that he joined us for the 2002 vintage, having recently graduated from Adelaide University. After so many years, we thank him for his efforts on our behalf and wish him all the best for the future.
Read MoreThe Two Musketeers
Having made mention of our United Nations grape picking team in our last newsletter, we should point out how valuable our overseas visitors were during pruning.
After the harvest finished, two fine soldiers from the Grande Armee Australien, Romain Saint-Juvin and Benoit Guyot headed off, in the tradition of Napoleon, to conquer the north. Unluckily for them but fortunate for us, work above the 26th Parallel was as hard to find as a victory in Moscow, so they made the long march in their old, white Falcon, back down the west coast, to face the southern cold. We gratefully accepted them back and they settled in for a winter in the Wilyabrup horizontal rain, helping us with the pruning.
It is not normally the case for the working holiday visa crew to be further south than Carnarvon during June, July and August. Most visitors, especially Europeans, who have come to Australia to enjoy the warm weather, like to be up in Broome, Darwin or Cairns at that time of year, so it’s rare for them to stay and we were pleased they did.
Once they settled back in, they got into the winter spirit of this region – make the most of the fine weather when it happens but bring a pleasant disposition when it’s not. They got stuck in and did a great job.
The two musketeers became three, when the “pruning whirlwind”, Sai Kham Lu joined in to help. Romain and Benoit worked hard but Sai is a Cambodian pruning machine. To describe him as productive doesn’t do him justice. In more than 30 years pruning experience, he is the only person we have seen who works with a miner’s light. This is no exaggeration. He happily racked up 16 hour days and anyone who follows day length at that time of year will know he spent many hours working in the dark and still did an excellent job.
In the great Grande Armee tradition of the “maraud”, Romain and Benoit busied themselves around the southwest, looking for company and sustenance. This has taken them far afield, to exotic destinations like Manjimup, where they have brought some Gallic flair to driving, eating and romance. They’ve moved on to conquer Japan and we wish them all the best.
Read MoreMoss Wood Ribbon Vale Vineyard 2008 Cabernet Sauvignon Merlot and Merlot
Looking back at any vintage, it’s always interesting to speculate about why the quality and wine style turned out as they did. The first point of reference is, of course, to sit down and recall what the growing season was like, even if the memory can play tricks. At Moss Wood, we felt the summer was notable for good, perhaps above average warmth during January and early February, followed by a quick change into cool, Autumnal conditions. At the time, the nights, in particular, began to feel quite cool and damp. So, the second thing was to attempt to verify this, when we looked at the record it showed the average temperatures for both February and March were the lowest they had been for all but one year of the previous decade. It seems it wasn’t just our collective imagination at work.
At the time, we had a hint this was happening because the ripening slowed in late February, which leads to an interesting point. Although it may seem curious to an outsider, the finer points of grape ripening can sometimes be overlooked in the hurly burly of vintage. Since we can’t change the weather, only react to it, our focus has been to concentrate on grape sampling and charge in and pick each block when it’s ready. Never mind what the temperatures have been doing, let’s just get the job done!
Although winemakers would love to have people believe otherwise, they are not God and wine is not made in a perfect world. Shock, horror! There have been times when our samples have not matched the ripeness of the harvested grapes and we have always put this down to errors in sampling. However, the events of 2008 led us to review and change our approach. These days, when a sample is taken, the average temperature for the intervening period is checked, which acts as confirmation of the sample result. Perhaps not surprisingly to some, what we’ve found is that if the rate of ripening has been slower than expected, it’s almost certainly because temperatures have been lower. The samplers have been more accurate than we thought. The result of all this is we still can’t change the weather but we are now more considered in our response by being just that bit more accurate with our picking times. The overall incremental increase in wine quality may be small, but it will allow us to be more consistent.
Returning to 2008, the January weather meant we were expecting an early vintage, much the same as we had experienced the year before. The early varieties confirmed this, coming off slightly earlier than average and we were preparing to roll quickly from one to the other. However, the pressure eased and we had a positively leisurely completion to the season. We picked each section of the vineyard as it ripened and then we waited for the next part to be ready.
This was all very well but it did mean we were exposed to some risks. The birds were frantically looking for food and moisture during the summer and they kept on attacking the bird nets. Fortunately we were able to keep them out and damage was effectively zero. We also kept an eye on the weather, in the hope that Mother Nature kept the rain away until we’d picked, and she also behaved herself.
Cabernet Franc was first to come in, and like the other early varieties, it was two weeks ahead of its average harvest date of 17th March. Some of its early ripening may be the result of a lighter crop, which was down 35%, to 6.14 tonnes per hectare. This was followed soon after by the Merlot, on 7th March. Once again, this was early; being 13 days ahead and its yield was also down to 7.34 tonnes per hectare, a slightly less disappointing 14% reduction. Cabernet Sauvignon completed the process on 22nd March, some 9 days earlier than average. At 5.02 tonnes per hectare yield, it was 35% down.
Since warm weather speeds the ripening process, this all suggests the season must have been quite warm. However, when we looked at the time taken for the period from flowering to final ripeness, a different story emerges. Merlot was 4 days earlier than average; taking 113 days to go from flowering to harvest, but Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon were both exactly average. Each flowered between one and two weeks earlier than average, so part of the early season is explained by this.
Finally, when we go to the temperature data, the picture becomes clear. Each variety enjoyed at least an average number of hours in the optimal temperature range for vines but only a limited amount of extreme heat. There were only 42 hours above 33C.
How do we summarise all this? In short, while the yields were disappointing, the vines experienced an even, moderate season, with enough warmth for steady ripening and just enough of the higher temperatures to ripen all the fruit aromas. However, the emphasis is on “just” because the lack of extreme heat is important. It has produced a vintage with fully ripened flavours and tannins, ensuring the palate has concentration and length. At the same time, the wines display delightful aromas, perhaps uncharacteristically fragrant for Cabernet Sauvignon, in particular. While showing classic, red currants, it has retained some really lifted rose and pomegranate notes which are rarely seen.
Median Harvest Dates and Ripeness:
Merlot – 7th March, 2008; 13.0 Baume
Cabernet Franc – 3rd March, 2008; 13.5 Baume
Cabernet Sauvignon – 22nd March, 2008; 13.6 Baume
After hand harvesting, the fruit was delivered to the winery where it was destemmed into small open fermenters, which were seeded with pure yeast culture for primary fermentation. The tanks were then hand plunged up to four times per day and the temperatures were maintained at a maximum of 28°C.
Skin contact time varied between the varieties and each batch was pressed according to taste. We taste each one twice daily to monitor the balance of tannins and make the decision to press when we perceive this to be at its best. In 2008 the Cabernet Franc was pressed after 16 days, the Merlot after 11 days and the Cabernet Sauvignon after 15 days.
The different batches were then kept separate while they went through malolactic fermentation and they were then racked and blending trials were carried out. On 26th August the blends were put together – for the Cabernet Sauvignon Merlot, the combination was 56% and 44%, respectively. In the Merlot, the combination was 86% Merlot and 14% Cabernet Franc.
Each year we make up the final blend based on blind tastings in our laboratory and our aim is to make up the best combination for that year. The 2008 blends were slightly out of the ordinary, with the Cabernet Sauvignon Merlot having more Merlot and no Cabernet Franc. The Merlot included a significant percentage of Cabernet Franc and fulfills a long-time Moss Wood ambition to produce this wine in the style of the great “Right Bank” wines of Bordeaux.
The wines were then racked into French oak. For the Cabernet Sauvignon Merlot, 35% of the barrels were new and for the Merlot, 44% were new.
After nearly two years in oak, the wines were racked from barrel in May 2010. A wide range of fining trials were conducted but in the end, neither the Merlot nor the Cabernet Sauvignon were improved. So, the unfined wines were sterile filtered and bottled on 1st July, 2010.
Moss Wood Ribbon Vale Vineyard 2008 Cabernet Sauvignon Merlot
Colour and condition: Hues of deep brick red, with bright condition.
Nose: Ripe red and dark fruits of red currant, blackberry and mulberry, with lots of musk, smoke and earth in the back ground – very juicy and complex.
Palate: The same generosity of fruit follows on to the palate, where the wine has immediate appeal, with its plump mulberry and Turkish delight flavours, full body and good length. The texture is smooth, despite its relatively firm tannin finish and displays the balance we believe has been the hallmark of this wine over the last 3 vintages. There are soft, smoky and charry oak notes in the background.
Since this was such a good vintage, it will come as no surprise that we enthusiastically recommend this wine for cellaring. The generosity and balance make it delicious drinking now and we encourage consumers who prefer the plump young fruit flavours to enjoy the wine in its youth. However, the vintage has delivered a combination of chemistry and style that will age successfully for many years. We recommend those who enjoy older wine to cellar it for at least 10 years.
Moss Wood Ribbon Vale Vineyard 2008 Merlot
Colour and condition: deep brick red, in bright condition Nose: Generous nose, with ripe fruit aromas combined with Merlot’s complex earthy notes.
Palate: The wine presents immediate fruit generosity, with plum and black currant flavours filling the mid-palate. In addition, the hallmark of this vintage is the balance of tannin, which can so often be a problem with this variety. In 2008, the typically firm Merlot tannins sit neatly underneath, giving firm tannin all the way through but never being gritty or drying. At the very back, the toasty oak adds to the finish.
As a varietal wine, Merlot is often judged as being rather simple and perhaps this is true when compared with Pinot Noir. Consumers are tempted by its generous red fruit characters and early plumpness, to consider it a wine for current drinking, with little to be gained by cellaring. We would like to respectfully disagree. While we certainly acknowledge its innate drinkability, it is very much a wine that develops complex bottle bouquet. To illustrate this, we would like to point out that our first Merlot turns 10 this year and for those who may still have some in their cellar, we enthusiastically suggest you try the wine. It has developed earthy, tarry complexity but still retains good fruit aromas and gives the appearance of needing at least 5 more years to reach full maturity.
This being the case, and with the significant improvements in our viticulture and winemaking we have achieved in the intervening years, we are very much of the view the 2008 vintage has the style and quality to at least match this result. Therefore, our recommendations are, for those who want to see at least some bottle age characters, the wine should be cellared for at least 10 years. For those who prefer to see it in full maturity, we recommend a further 10 years cellaring thereafter.
Moss Wood 2010 Semillon
Our last two vintages have been notable for the very even weather conditions, where extreme heat has been avoided but the days have been sufficiently warm to promote even ripening. The vines responded accordingly, with good shoot growth early in the season, a good fruit set during flowering and then retention of excellent varietal aromas during ripening.
The even nature of the season can be seen in the production data. The median harvest date for the Semillon is 13th March but this year, it was slightly early, being the 7th. This is also confirmed by the time taken to go from flowering to harvest, where, at 97 days, the season was 8 days ahead of the average. The affect of the season was probably also enhanced by a slightly below average crop. The long term mean for the Semillon is 10.96 tonnes per hectare, whereas 2010 was down by a not insignificant 16%, at 9.21. As an aside, the lower yield is something of a disappointment. Crop levels began trending down after 2004 bottoming out in 2006, so although we would have preferred a bigger crop at least 2010 is part of a trend of slowly increasing yields over the last 3 vintages. We are not certain why this happened but are pleased that measures we have taken appear to be working.
As readers might imagine, with so many things in our favour, the fruit intensity of the wine should be of a high order and indeed it is. All the typical Moss Wood Semillon characters are on display – apples, figs and honey etc but for those with an eye for the interesting detail of any vintage, we report something of a curiosity about this year’s Semillon. It produced a significant number of pink berries. Although Semillon is obviously a white grape, readers may be amused to learn that rose-coloured berries are quite common and occur in most vintages. However, for reasons about which we can only speculate, 2010 conditions produced them in much greater numbers. They have a distinctive musk, or muscat-like flavour that is almost confectionery in nature and this really adds to the complexity of the 2010.
Median Harvest Date and Ripeness:
7th March, 2010; 12.8 Baume
We happily acknowledge that Moss Wood is a cautious organisation which focuses on maintaining consistency of style and quality in each of its wines. Yet despite this, we are proud of our record in trialing new techniques and exploring different ways of doing things that might enhance what we do. So as we describe our production process for 2010, it may, or may not, surprise to learn that we have just about come the full circle and this latest wine has more in common with 1976 than 2006.
By way of explanation, Australian Semillon varies somewhat between regions, as a comparison of Hunter Valley and Margaret River would attest. However, regardless of origin, all the wines are famous for pristine fruit characters, which give drinkability and distinctiveness in the short term. Similarly, over the next decade, these same wines will develop complex bottle bouquet.
The crucial point is these styles all depend on good depth of primary fruit aromas in the young wine. Having tried a variety of methods to enhance fruit depth and complexity, over 30 years, we have returned to where we started.
So, our technique is quite simple and designed to achieve that end, much as the white wines were produced in the 1970’s. The best ripeness for Semillon in our vineyard, depending on the warmth of the season, seems to be about 12.5°Bé. We aimed to match that this year but our sampling must have been slightly astray because the lab result said 12.8°Bé but the final alcohol of 14% says it was more like 13.2°Bé. As we noted earlier, not even winemakers are perfect.
The fruit was handpicked and delivered to the winery where it was destemmed, crushed, chilled and pressed. The free run juice was then settled at 12°C for 2 days before the clear juice was racked and seeded with pure yeast culture. The pressings fraction was fined to reduce tannin and then racked and added to the main blend. Fermentation was then maintained at 15°C and proceeded through to dryness where the batch was allowed to settle on gross lees for a week. The clear wine was then racked off and fining trials were carried out. The decision was made to fine with bentonite, for protein stability, and nothing else. After fining, the wine was cold stabilised and then sterile filtered and bottled on 30th June, 2010.
Colour and condition: Medium straw colour, with green tints. Bright condition.
Nose: Fresh fruit aromas of grapefruit, apple and fig. There are also strong notes of pear and musk which is unusual in Moss Wood Semillon and seems to be a feature of 2010. Although we are not completely certain, we believe this is the result of a predominance of distinctly pink berries, as described above. This is a feature of the variety and they occur every year but for reasons about which we are unsure, they were plentiful in 2010. This distinctiveness also applies to the flavours and these grapes have almost a muscatlike floral character. This complexity is further enhanced by background notes of caramel and lanolin.
Palate: This is classic Moss Wood Semillon, combining crisp acidity with full body and a slight firmness of tannin on the finish. The mid-palate has ripe apple, fig and pear flavours giving a generous, almost sweet feel, despite the fact the wine is completely dry.
The wine presents with enjoyable fruit aromas and flavours and can be consumed by itself as an aperitif or with food. However, its concentration and complexity will repay patience and we recommend it be cellared for at least 10 years. It has a style that is reminiscent of the 1995 vintage which has aged beautifully over its 15 years and is now a wine of great complexity. We believe the 2010 is destined for similar things.
Moss Wood 2009 Chardonnay
Once again we note the 2008/2009 growing season is one of the most even we have had. The summer temperatures gave us consistent warmth but no extreme heat and the vines found it very much to their liking. All varieties respond with correspondingly even ripening and the resulting wines have generous fruit characters and lots of interesting, background complex notes. Although there were some differences in the growing conditions, we think 1995 is a comparable year, especially for the Chardonnay.
So, having seen this comparison, readers may find the following numbers quite interesting. In 1995, the median harvest date for Chardonnay was 19th February whereas in 2009, it was 8th March. So the more recent season was notablely cooler, ripening some 17 days later and 7 days later than the long term average, across all vintages, of 1st March. This means there have only been two later vintages for Moss Wood Chardonnay, the 1989 and 2006, picked on the 19th and 15th March, respectively. Yet the style of wine made in those years was quite different. In 1989, we had very heavy rain in the first week of February when the vines were probably within a fortnight of harvest. The resulting cool weather and dilution took them several more weeks to make up. In much discussed 2006, temperatures were very mild and the vines simply didn’t get the heat they needed to maintain good ripening rates. In the end, of course, Chardonnay, an early variety, did not have the difficulties of Cabernet Sauvignon. However, despite reaching full maturity, it made very delicate wine, with a predominance of citrus and minerality not often seen in a Moss Wood.
Can we draw any conclusions from all this? Despite the relatively late harvest date, the 2009 doesn’t share much in common with the 1989 or the 2006. So perhaps the key was the consistent, if slightly lower than usual temperatures, which, combined with no interruption from rain, were just right for the vines to maintain slow and steady ripening. In addition, yields were moderate but not excessive. The 2009 crop was 6.89 tonnes per hectare, slightly above the long term average of 6.63. The lack of stress in this environment ensured they also kept a complex flavour profile, or so we think. Whatever the drivers, we are delighted with the result!
Median Harvest Dates and Ripeness:
8th March, 2009; 13.2 Baume
The fruit was harvested by hand and delivered to the winery, where it was wholebunch pressed. Free run juice and pressings were kept separate to fine the latter for tannin. The juice was then transferred to stainless steel tanks, where it was cold settled for 48 hours and the clear juice was then racked to barrels. A small percentage of solids was included, around 2% of the final volume, or as close as we can calculate. Each batch was then seeded with a pure yeast culture for primary fermentation and this was controlled to a maximum temperature of 18°C.
Next, the wine underwent partial malolactic fermentation and once this was completed, the different batches were blended and the finished wine returned to barrel, for continued aging on lees.
Our choice of oak remains, as usual, 225 litre, French barrels, with the majority supplied by Tonnelleries Remond and Seguin Moreau. This year we were also pleased with the results from a trial of Latour barrels and we will include more of them in the future.
After spending 18 months in cask, the wine was then racked to stainless steel tanks and fining trials were carried out. In the end, the wine was fined with bentonite, to achieve protein stability, and isinglass, to improve tannin balance. It was then sterile filtered and bottled on 13th October 2010.
Colour and condition: Colour is medium to deep straw hue and condition is bright
Nose: There is considerable volume and the nose presents as a lifted combination of fruit aromas and blossom-like scents, reminiscent of honeysuckle or nasturtium. The aromas are typical Moss Wood, with yellow flesh nectarine, peach and passionfruit. There are also interesting complex notes of malt biscuit, caramel, mature cheese and charry oak and once again, the usual Moss Wood marmalade characters.
Palate: The wine initially fills the mid-palate with generous, ripe stone fruit flavours and these combine with full body and lively acidity to give lifted, juicy mouth feel. There are complex secondary flavours of citrus and oak and roast nut and malt that combine to give an almost lemon meringue pie combination on the finish. Despite the presence of oak, the tannins are in good balance, so the wine has a clean finish, with a smooth texture.
Given the quality of the vintage in general, we have no hesitation in recommending this wine for cellaring, despite its youthful approachability. Certainly it can be enjoyed as a young wine but for those who have the space and the patience, and an enthusiasm for old wines, we strongly recommend it be kept till at least 10 years of age. By then it will have developed some complex bottle bouquet but will not be reaching its peak. We anticipate it will drink at its most complex between 15 and 20 years old and should hold that status for at least a further 5 years beyond that.
Read MoreA Man Named Keith: Moss Wood
Since I spend much of my time in French wine regions such as Bordeaux and Burgundy, I rarely encounter vignerons or maître-de-chais called “Keith”. It has taken over a decade before I met a “Keith”, but the “Keith” was one worth waiting for. I first met Keith Mugford of Moss Wood at an annual “Coonawarra Cabernet Masterclass” in 2007, where the home team was about to be pitted against their Margaret River cousins. I was in a haze of acute jetlag and had done little preparation, which admittedly had bugger all to do with jetlag…but it offered a legitimate excuse at the time. Keith sashayed into the hall, unable to shake my hand as he was laden with literature and research papers. He was positively brimming with energy, eagerly anticipating how the crème de la crème of each region would compare.
The pangs of guilt intensified. I would have to wing it, but just keeping my eyes open was difficult enough. Fortunately, the calibre of wines alerted and revivified the senses and the ensuing debate was thoroughly enlightening. As it turned out, my own personal highlight was unveiled as Moss Wood Cabernet Sauvignon 1985, a beauty as entrancing as almost any Claret I have encountered from that fecund vintage. So when I ventured down to Keith’s neck of the woods, I made sure that his winery was one of my first ports of call.
History
The roots of Moss Wood stretch back to the fledgling days of Margaret River. The original block of vines comes from a plot of land that Bill Pannell persuaded its owner, Jack Guthrie, to part with in 1969. Along with his wife Sandra, he began preparing the land and the first cuttings of Cabernet were planted two years later, offering up their first vintage of 250 cases in 1973. (Incidentally, these inaugural releases hit the headlines in 2007 when one bottle of ‘73 went under the hammer for an extraordinary AUS$2,301 at Langton’s auction: the highest price ever paid for a post-1970 bottle of Australian fermented grape juice.) The plot of Cabernet was augmented with Pinot Noir and Semillon in 1977, although the latter had been produced privately the year before. A small crop of Chardonnay debuted in 1980, although the next two vintages failed and it was not until the 1983 vintage that the public got their first sniff of it.
(Keith Mugford at home with his vines.)
By that time Moss Wood was entering a new era. Roseworthy-trained Keith Mugford had tenured at Tullochs and Orlando before signing on at Moss Wood as winemaker in 1978. “Bill had a problem with the 1978 crop, which is why he employed me,” explained Keith. “There was a clone mutation and the wine fermented differently. This caused a problem with sulphides and after filtration he found the wine had become flat. He ended up selling it for AUS$2.50/btl whereas the ’77 had sold for AUS$3.50/btl. ”
Keith debuted with the 1979 vintage (see tasting notes below.) Along with his wife Clare, they bought the winery in July 1985 and began investing in the vineyard, planting other grape varieties to complement the Cabernet Sauvignon and re-trellising the vines. Ian Bell was recruited as assistant vineyard manager and in 1989 he became assistant winemaker. Expansion continued with the acquisition of the 6.36ha Ribbon Vale Vineyard in 2000 in Wilyabrup, blessed with similar, classic gravel-loam soil of clay subsoil and these vines were planted in 1977. Although the wines are treated exactly the same as at the original Moss Wood vineyard, the clones are different and the wines are kept separate. Ian Bell resigned in 2006 to embark upon his own venture: Glenmore Wines in Yallingup and Josh Bahen, who has worked at Moss Wood since 2002, has stepped into his shoes.
The Vineyards
Like Vanya Cullen, Keith is one of those winemakers whose natural environment is amongst his vines. The original block consists of 11.78ha on gravel and red-brown loam over clay with no irrigation, the composition of plantings: 5.43ha of Cabernet Sauvignon, 0.29ha of Cabernet Franc, 0.03ha Merlot, 1.83ha Semillon, 2.17ha Chardonnay, 1.55ha Pinot Noir and 0.48ha Petit Verdot. Keith emphasized how important it was to change the trellising of the vines towards Scott Henry (Chardonnay and Pinot Noir) and Te Kauwhata Two Tier (Cabernet Franc, Merlot and Petit Verdot.) This has not only reduced yields but also facilitated vineyard husbandry in terms of picking and pruning. The original block of Cabernet was augmented with a further two hectares in September 1999 that included a little Petit Verdot and Cabernet Franc and these will be blended into the main blend from 2006. Of course, Bordeaux is an obvious inspiration in terms of vineyard planting except that there is less emphasis upon Merlot, a subject upon which I will return to later.
Keith sources fruit from several other assiduously chosen vineyards after the 1996 season denuded him of sufficient fruit. These include the aforementioned Ribbon Vale Vineyard, Green Valley Vineyard and Lefroy Brook Vineyard. Keith also makes the Cabernet at the Montgomery Vineyard that is sold to Sydney super-chef Tetsuya Wakuda for his restaurant’s own label. Fruit from the Glenmore Vineyard owned by Ian Bell was blended into the Moss Wood Cabernet from 1997 and from 2002 is has been bottled separately as “Amy’s Blend” after Ian’s grandmother who owns the land. (For detailed information on these holdings, refer to Moss Wood’s official website.) With respect to the 2008 vintage, the Moss Wood Cabernet was sourced solely from their own vines.
The vineyards were ploughed until 1980 and now Keith is experimenting with minimum tillage, mulching and cover crops, mainly legumes and “bulky” plants. He employs a controlled spray program on a 14-day rotational basis using copper and sulphur with four sprays during flowering to inhibit botrytis. Crop-thinning is only practiced for the Cabernet Sauvignon and the entire crop is picked by hand.
The Winery
(Is this the most boring photograph I have ever published? Probably. But this is the original Moss Wood winery and there is only so much photo-shop can do.)
Let me be honest, Moss Wood’s reputation is not reflected in the aesthetic aspirations of the winery that patently has functionality at its heart. There is nothing wrong with that in by book. After all, how many ostentatious wineries blithely churn out lacklustre wine? Certainly just by walking round the hotchpotch of buildings, Moss Wood has remained close to its roots. There is nothing to indicate an inflated ego or self-aggrandisement, which is reflected in the down-to-earth, personable nature of Keith himself. Yes, I am sure he welcomes visitors with appointments, but if you seek sculpted gardens or restaurant facilities, head for Leeuwin or Xanadu.
Over the years, Keith has tweaked the Cabernet Sauvignon by increasing the length of skin contact and by blending Cabernet Franc (5%), Merlot (0.5%) and from 1995 he has seasoned his wines with 5% of late-ripening Petit Verdot. The Ribbon Vale wines are based on a ratio of 60% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot and 10% Cabernet Franc and are fashioned in a slightly fleshier, rounder style. Fruit is de-stemmed and alcoholic fermentation is through cultured yeasts. The wines used to be raised in 300-litre barrels but nowadays there is a move towards 225-litre barriques, mainly Seguin-Moreau, Raymonde and Rousseau, with a couple sourced from a Bordeaux First Growth no less. The “Amy’s” tends to use less new oak, around 25%, compared to the Moss Wood Cabernet that utilizes around 50-55% depending on the vintage. In the past, Moss Wood has released a Cabernet Reserve, the last release in 1994, but this has been discontinued.
The Pinot Noirs follow Burgundian tenets: whole-bunch crushing and manual hand and feet plunging during fermentation. The Chardonnay is raised in oak barriques for 18-months without lees-stirring and most barrels going through malolactic.
The Wines
Interestingly Keith collated his vintages into three groups. “Cool years have a fine texture, less concentration and a ‘gritty astringency’,” he explained, “which would be vintages such as 1982, 1987, 2002 and 2006. Hot years included 1976, 2000 and 2007 that have a ‘sumptuous generosity’ and are earlier drinking. The best years I would say are 1975, 1980, 1985, 1990, 1995, 1996, 2001 and 2005 where you obtain mulberry and black fruits, cigar and a touch of leafiness. There was a period between 1982 and 1987 where the Cabernets were leafier…you couldn’t make wines like that now…styles have become more market driven.”
There is a sense of honesty to Moss Wood’s Cabernet Sauvignon; a wine that reflects the growing season, for better or for worse. For example, I cannot avoid the vegetal notes on the Cabernet Sauvignon 2006, now tasted 3-4 times. Cropped on 14th April it represents a brave attempt to extricate ripeness from a cool summer, but I cannot help but feel this wine fell at the last hurdle. For this writer, I much prefer the stunning Cabernet Sauvignon 2007 that Keith compares to the legendary 1976. Cropped on 6th March and delivering a healthy 14.5% alcohol, this is unadulterated Margaret River Cabernet at its very best: a complex, ethereal bouquet that keeps the senses on their toes, picking out aromas of cold tea and cedar from the brambly black fruit, the palate beautifully, succinctly balanced with an intriguing “maltiness” coming through on the finish (something I sometimes discern on François Mitjavile’s wines in Saint Emilion.) The Cabernet Sauvignon 2008 is a little more structured and broody at the moment, but already displays great concentration and focus, perhaps just missing the flair of the previous vintage, although that should develop in bottle of course. The barrel sample of Cabernet Sauvignon 2009 was similarly showing great potential although at this premature juncture, it just lacked a little persistency on the finish. I look forward to tasting both in bottle.
I tasted one mature vintage that turned up at a private dinner for judges at the highly recommended “Must” restaurant in Margaret River (article to follow separately.) The Cabernet Sauvignon 1979 was actually served against my own offering, a Château Pichon-Baron 2005 that was in top form. But Keith’s debut vintage more than held its own, despite just a faint hint of TCA on the nose. The palate was remarkably fresh and vital, a doppelganger for a fine Left Bank Bordeaux and in my estimation, better than many from that vintage! These old wines are now impossibly rare and unsurprisingly Keith regards the triumvirate of 1975, 1976 and 1977 as Moss Wood’s benchmarks.
Stylistically, Moss Wood’s Cabernet’s are strictly Left Bank, perhaps more Northern Médoc in style. They often bring to mind a fine Saint Estèphe is terms of their comparatively more austere structure and their uncompromising nature. They demand respect, they demand patience on behalf of the wine-lover and their charms and personality are not fully revealed until 8-15 years. However, they certainly flourish with age as evinced by the two older wines. Their Cabernets develop lovely mulberry aromas mixed with a little mocha or dark chocolate, the palate retaining a sturdy backbone but melted gradually with every turn of the calendar. I do ask myself whether the Cabernet Sauvignon would benefit from a higher percentage of Merlot, just to lend a little suppleness? Personally, I would be intrigued to see how say, 15% marries with the Cabernet and the Petit Verdot, but of course, that is up to Keith and the limitations of his terroir.
At least this time I was not as jet-lagged as in Coonawarra and I was not looking for a barrel behind which I could curl up and catch forty winks.
Read MoreMaybe it’s a sign that the economic downturn is driving people to look elsewhere for work but whatever the reason, our grape picking team this year is a lively combination of European nationals, such as we’ve never had before. Accordingly it has been nicknamed the United Nations. Walking around the vineyard, it’s possible to hear animated discussion of kite surfing in French, singing of love songs in Italian, or just quiet chatting in German. In fact, there are so many internationals they complain that by travelling with their compatriots, they don’t getting enough practice speaking English.
The international theme continues in the winery, where we have two Americans helping us, Nicolas Cueva and Louis Dixon. “Nico” is from California, and has a degree in Environmental Science from UCLA. He became interested in wine quite literally by drinking and enjoying it. After working in a wine store he decided making wine was more interesting than selling it and he began his new career. Most recently he worked at the famous Kosta Browne winery at Sebastopol, in Sonoma County. Having decided it was time to experience the world of wine outside the USA, he chose to come to Australia and in particular Margaret River. His reasons are simple – it’s the best place to make wine and go surfing! Perhaps we shouldn’t mention that there also seem to be a smorgasbord of girls here as well! Nico has added an incredible level of culinary quality to the lunchroom, where his food choices are well above the norm. His Mexican and family restaurant background means he comes in with all sorts of impeccably presented and exotic choices, all far more interesting than toasted sandwiches!
Louis, a recent convert to the wine industry, hails from Portland, Oregon and has a Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Engineering. His interest in wine evolved through travelling and enjoying wine with friends who have good wine knowledge. Having worked in medical device industry, specialising in pacemakers, he was tempted by a career change. The hands-on work and the opportunity to experience and understand the process, lured him to the wine industry. He was attracted by the chance of being able to work overseas and was drawn to Margaret River by its reputation for high quality wine and the fact that it’s coastal and isolated. As a keen snow skier, Louis is determined to master surfing while here and when he’s not doing that, he’s running several projects, including home brewing beer, very successfully. Dubbed “Ribbon Vale Ale”, it is proving a popular choice for the after work beer.
Read MoreAs we go to print, the 2010 vintage is well under way and the conditions have been good this year. Rainfall during spring and early summer was excellent and during the crucial stages of flowering we had, in the main, fine weather. The rain-bearing systems spared us physical damage although some patches in the later ripening varieties were slightly affected by a day of spectacular thunderstorms. Although these did produce some hail storms, luckily for us, none of them were near Moss Wood.
These conditions were, at times, favourable for the fungal diseases and there were some outbreaks around the region but our spray program was successful in controlling any problems.
Most varieties flowered slightly later than average and their development continued that way until the third week of February, reflecting the fact that average temperature through December, January and early February remained slightly below average. We did have the odd hot day, the hottest being Sunday 17th January, when the mercury peaked at 39.3C. There have been press reports of losses through sunburn but these were minimal at Moss Wood. However, February ended with a bang, with a series of days in the mid-thirties, starting on the 23rd and lasting until the 3rd March. This brought the vintage on with a rush and we started with Pinot Noir on the 24th February and had almost reached halfway by the 10th March. At the time of writing, the temperatures have eased and ripening has slowed accordingly and we now expect to finish in early April.
There has been terrific flowering of the Marri trees and it’s very interesting to see how much the birds prefer this blossom over the grapes. In a year like this, when the blooms are plentiful, the birds are hardly seen in the vineyard, even when the grapes are fully ripe and easily seen. Yet, as soon as the flowering finishes, the birds appear in droves, as happened this year by mid-March. Fortunately the late damage was minimal and all varieties have been in excellent condition.
The most exciting and worrying part of the season, in equal parts, occurred while we monitored the southward progress of the recent storm that did terrible damage in Perth. Once again, we were lucky and by the time it reached us, all it produced was 5 millimetres of rain and thankfully, no hail. The same cannot be said of Clare’s car, which, being driven by our eldest daughter Eloise, got caught in the hail near the University of Western Australia. Very frightening for her and many, many other Perth residents.
These good conditions have led to average, or higher, yields for all varieties although the most crucial thing for us about any vintage is its quality. In 2010, all varieties exhibit excellent fruit aromas, with great intensity, and very well balanced tannins. We hold very high hopes for them.
Read MoreLike most visitors to Singapore, Clare and Keith are always very impressed with that city’s hospitality, in terms of both its quantity and quality. As an Asian hub, it’s a cultural melting pot, and welcomes all visitors with enthusiasm. With a population nearly the size of Sydney located on a small island, it means a typical visit to Singapore always has a hectic schedule but no matter how busy things may be, the locals make sure their guests are comfortable and well fed. The range and quality of hotels and restaurants is exceptional.
Of course, this quality doesn’t happen by chance and Singaporeans work very hard at getting these things right. Their hospitality professionals are very well trained and as a result it’s quite likely that you’ll find them running large hotels and restaurants right throughout the world. One of the key training institutions is the Temasek Polytechnic which is now aligned with the leading hospitality training campus in the United States of America, the University of Nevada in Las Vegas and the Culinary Institute of America.
In conjunction with our Singapore importer, Hai Choo Wines and Spirits, we provide a scholarship for students of the Business School at the Temasek Polytechnic. Each year, two students and a staff member from the Diploma in Culinary and Catering Management are selected to come to Moss Wood for a week’s work experience during harvest. This year we have Amanda Han and Joel Lim, accompanied by lecturer Daniel Chia and each of them have entered into the spirit of the vintage and providing willing assistance, from picking grapes to plunging tanks. Since Hospitality, rather than viticulture and winemaking, is their area of interest, they have also looked at the tourism offer in Margaret River as a whole. To that end they have visited other local wineries and restaurants, including Pierro, Cullen, Vasse Felix, Leeuwin Estate, Cape Lodge and Newtown House. Hopefully, when they return to Singapore, they’ll be enthusiastic ambassadors for the Margaret River region.
A tradition that has evolved is for the visitors to produce a Singapore meal. This year the highlight was Ma Po Dou Fu, braised bean curd with a spicy sauce, originally from Sichuan in China.
Amanda’s reasons for coming to Moss Wood were to see the winemaking process and if she was lucky, some kangaroos. Joel is very keen to get some depth in his understanding of wine. Daniel has visited Australia many times before and is familiar with just about all our major regions but this is his first visit to WA. They have enjoyed the hands-on work and we’ve really appreciated their efforts in the vineyard and winery. They have departed vowing to come back to work vintage next year, they would be most welcome.
Read MoreWhen Keith started at Moss Wood for the 1979 vintage, it was an exciting time in the Margaret River region. Although the wine industry was tiny and very much in its infancy, armed with the scientific backing of Dr. John Gladstones, the new vignerons were filled with optimism about the future. The sky was the limit as far as wine style and quality were concerned and the new producers had a blank canvas upon which to work. Of course, there were many wines from around the world that were seen as benchmarks but the youth of the local industry meant the boundaries were not limited by any historical bias.
This fertile environment fostered numerous discussions with the then owners, Bill and Sandra Pannell, about what style they should pursue for their fledgling wines. It was not uncommon for these to progress outside Moss Wood and there were many robust debates with the other new growers. The wine styles we now know as typical Margaret River were forged in part by the splendidly argued cases (with thanks to Sir Humphrey Appleby) presented by our neighbours Tom Cullity, David Gregg, and Kevin and Di Cullen among many others. Each producer sought to make a wine of significant quality that could make its way on the world stage and at the same time would be an expression of their vineyards and the region.
At Moss Wood, we put significant effort into developing an appropriate style for each of our varieties but the Cabernet Sauvignon, being the first wine, was our primary focus at the time. Naturally, we looked to the great wines of Bordeaux for inspiration and carefully examined the style of numerous of that region’s wines in the search for clues. No doubt you can imagine the sheer drudgery of having to spend hour after hour tasting top quality French wine. These are the sacrifices that winemakers have to make! All jokes aside, we were always very much aware that we were making wine in Margaret River and if we wanted to make wines like those of the Medoc, then that’s where we should go. Margaret River’s individual climate meant it would always be different.
As luck would have it, our initial vintages had seasonal variations that produced a series of quite distinct styles and this gave the opportunity to debate the benefits and drawbacks of each. It is now a matter of Moss Wood folklore that the vineyard produced what turned out to be three great vintages in a row, 1975, 1976 and 1977 and which became our early benchmarks. The 1975 was admired for its finesse and complexity, the 1976 for its ripe generosity and the 1977 for sharing a bit in common with both its older siblings.
The middle wine produced a curious response. It was by far the ripest of the three and had a luxurious feel. The generosity of fruit, with ripe red currant aromas and flavours, was quite remarkable. Certainly it was popular with both consumers and critics alike, who especially liked its seamless tannins. This feature caused much discussion about whether it had the right structure to age well. The wine was so supple and drinkable many doubted its cellaring prospects, including the new winemaker. Over the intervening years the doubters were proven wrong and the 1976 developed in the bottle to become one of the vineyard’s finest.
It is interesting to consider the ripeness of the 1976. There has been a tendency in recent times, perhaps in response to the production in Australia of some very ripe wines, with alcohol often exceeding 15% alcohol, to look back fondly to earlier times, when good wines were made with lower alcohols. As is often the case, these generalisations are not really true. Despite being made over 30 years ago, the 1976 Moss Wood Cabernet Sauvignon had 14.3% alcohol and was never considered “hot”or “flabby” and went on to develop excellent character after cellaring. Perhaps the key is balance of all features, rather than ripeness alone?
We have since made several vintages that have some commonality with the 1976, most recently the 2004 and 2000, although neither of those were quite of the same quality. However, with the 2007 we believe we have a serious rival.
After the very mild conditions that prevailed in the previous vintage, it was sheer pleasure to enjoy some consistently warm conditions in 2007. The contrast is quite striking. After being 21 days behind the average harvest date in 2006, the median harvest date for Cabernet Sauvignon was 9th March or 19 days ahead of average. This means our coolest and warmest harvest dates are separated by a whopping 41 days, or effectively 6 weeks. From the winemaker’s perspective, there’s no doubt about which season we would prefer. So long as we don’t get extreme heat, causing quality problems like sunburn, we’ll take a warm year, like 2007, anytime.
In fact, when we look at the time taken for the grapes to go from flowering to harvest, it was not as warm a season as its dates suggest. For example, the block we call the “Short Rows” took 114 days to complete this period, only 4 days behind the average of 118, so this suggests the early harvest was as much a product of an early budburst as it was hot days during summer. We can speculate that this shows up in the quality of the wine because it is a finer wine than we would expect in a warm season.
Other aspects of the season were also favourable. There were no problems with disease, the birds were controlled by the application of nets and yields were good. The warmth of the season meant the vines had ample opportunity to ripen the crop, regardless of yield. However, for the record, Cabernet Sauvignon, at Moss Wood, averages of 7.52 tonnes per hectare and in 2007 the yield was 7.4. Petit Verdot yielded 5.66 tonnes per hectare as compared with its average of 5.88 and Cabernet Franc produced 6.82 tonnes per hectare compared with its long term yield of 6.78.
Production Notes
Median Harvest Dates:
Cabernet Sauvignon – 9th March, 2007
Petit Verdot – 17th March, 2007
Cabernet Franc – 6th March, 2007
Harvest Ripeness:
Cabernet Sauvignon – 13.8 Be
Petit Verdot – 14.3 Be
Cabernet Franc – 13.5 Be
With these figures, it’s easy to see that all the varieties were fully ripe when picked and this is a further pointer to the wine style. Each one produced its classic and distinct, dark berry notes. The Cabernet Sauvignon has rich red currant notes, the Petit Verdot has bright confectionery notes and the Cabernet Franc is all cherries and summer pudding.
The technique of production was typical for Moss Wood Cabernet Sauvignon and follows our traditional approach. With each batch the fruit is destemmed into open, stainless steel fermenters, seeded with a pure yeast culture and allowed to ferment at temperatures up to 30C. Extraction of colour and flavour is by hand plunging up to 4 times per day for the first 72 hours, dropping to once per day by completion of fermentation. Skin contact time varied from 7 to 13 days and each batch was drained and pressed once the correct tannin balance had been achieved.
After pressing, the wine underwent malolactic fermentation in stainless steel tanks and was then racked into barrels. All the casks were 225 litre French oak and 55% were new. Apart from a racking at the end of the first year, the wine stayed in barrel until November 2009 after which it was blended and fining trials were carried out to review tannin balance. After looking at the effect of various agents we decided the wine could not be improved and no fining was carried out. The wine was then sterile filtered and bottled on 21st December 2009.
Read MoreWith all these international visitors working here, we’ve taken the opportunity to taste a variety of wines with them and perhaps the most interesting was a comparative tasting comparing our earliest bottling using screwcaps, with the same wine under cork. The wines were Moss Wood 2002 Semillon, screwcap and cork; Moss Wood 2002 Chardonnay under screwcap, paired with Moss Wood 2001 Chardonnay under cork (we have no ’02 Chardonnay left under cork); Moss Wood 2001 Pinot Noir, screwcap and cork; Moss Wood 2001 Cabernet Sauvignon, screwcap and cork. All the wines had been cellared under exactly the same conditions, side by side, here at the winery.
The results were as expected, if somewhat disappointing, because of the poor performance of cork. The 2002 Semillon was “corked” and the 2001 Chardonnay, while still nice to drink, was prematurely aged as a result of random oxidation. Although it was not part of a comparative tasting, we tried a bottle of the Moss Wood 1998 “Glenmore Vineyard” Cabernet Sauvignon, to demonstrate the aging potential of our Amy’s wine. Unfortunately, this was also corked.
We first moved away from corks in 2002 because we had become so frustrated with exactly these sorts of problems and we knew that properly applied screwcaps were a good solution. By that time, they had a track record of being able to successfully close wines for at least 20 years. However, we were not completely sure about how quickly the wines would age, although anecdotal evidence suggested that they would. Tasting these wines has yet again highlighted exactly why we chose to move away from the traditional closure. All of the examples under screw caps had retained good primary fruit aromas but had also begun to develop typical bottle bouquet.
Despite our own concerns about cork, we hasten to add that we understand wine has a long-standing tradition of being sealed by corks and we continue to produce a small percentage of Moss Wood Cabernet Sauvignon for those customers who prefer this.
Read MoreOver the years there have been a number of female visitors to Moss Wood who have been quite taken with winemaker Josh Bahen and he’s built up something of a following. To our great amusement, he’s also accumulated a variety of interesting nicknames, the best of which was the “Lab Spunk”, coined by our visiting photographer. However, Josh is a very loyal guy and he finally convinced his girlfriend of many years, Jacqui Goodridge, that they should make things formal. Visitors to Moss Wood may remember the gorgeous Jacqui, who helped us with tastings for some time. The happy couple was married on the 23rd of January and we wish them all the best for their life together.
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