The Winery

Moss Wood Wines

Experimentation in the vineyard has been matched at the winery and the wines have undergone subtle refinements over the past decade.

Two factors have resulted in the production of Moss Wood Cabernet Sauvignon, which are more complex and have greater finesse. The wines are given longer skin contact time during fermentation and small amounts of Cabernet Franc (5%) and Merlot (0.05%) are now included in the blend. From the 1995 vintage onwards, Petit Verdot has contributed 5% to the wine. The benchmarks for the Moss Wood style, however, remain the Cabernet Sauvignons made between 1974 and 1977.

Burgundian influences have seen new techniques used in the production of Moss Wood Pinot Noir: the addition of whole bunches of grapes to the crush, longer skin contact time during fermentation and hand and feet plunging to mix the skins while the must is fermenting. These refinements in winemaking have been responsible for an improvement in the quality and consistency of the style.

There has been a slight but significant refinement in the style of Moss Wood Chardonnay. It now spends twelve to eighteen months in barrel on its lees without being stirred with a significant proportion undergoing a full malolactic fermentation during this time. Experimentation has resulted in the winery being more specific in its choice of oak for the Chardonnay: one hundred percent of the wine is barrel fermented in medium toasted Troncais and Allier oak.

The style of the Moss Wood Semillon has evolved since 1980 with the emphasis on achieving good depth of fruit flavour.

Ribbon Vale Wines

All grape processing is now carried out at the Moss Wood winery. For the 2000 vintage, winemaking continued at Ribbon Vale but the decision was made to consolidate to Moss Wood for 2001. With hindsight, this was inevitable given the additional resources required to operate two wineries and the time spent moving between them. Furthermore, the equipment at Moss Wood is of a higher standard and it was pointless not to take advantage of it. Ribbon Vale now operates as an air-conditioned warehouse for all packaged stock.

We have in place a five year plan which we believe is the time it will take for us to achieve the quality we want for Ribbon Vale. While the conditions of the season are beyond our control, we are confident that each new vintage during that time will see a significant improvement in the wines, as we strive to meet the expectations of our customers.

As an overall view of red wine production, we want to change the tannin structure of both wines. To achieve this, the grapes are picked riper, extraction techniques are more gentle during fermentation and time on skins has been cut form six weeks to two weeks. We are supporting this with a new oak-ageing regime, where only French oak is used and the barrel size has been reduced from 300 litres to 225 litres. We believe that this will enhance the cellaring ability of the wines and provide better balance in the short term.

Changes in the focus for the Ribbon Vale red wines has resulted in the discontinuation of the varietal Cabernet Sauvignon. Whilst a powerful and concentrated wine, the Moss Wood team have been more impressed with the blended wine Ribbon Vale Cabernet Merlot. Our view is that a blend roughly consisting of 60% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot and 10% Cabernet Franc gives a better quality outcome and this is the direction we will pursue.

The individual Ribbon Vale Merlot was retained because we were impressed with the depth and complexity that this variety achieves at Ribbon Vale Vineyard. With each vintage the team has a better understanding of the techniques required here and it is providing some interesting challenges. Not surprisingly, Merlot requires different handling compared to Cabernet Sauvignon.

After much experimentation in the 2000 vintage, Ribbon Vale Semillon and Sauvignon Blanc is blended, using around 60% of the former and 40% of the latter. The wine does not receive any barrel ageing but the Moss Wood technique of lees-stirring in tank is used to build complexity and texture. It was our conclusion that the blend was of better quality than the individual wines from each variety. This highlights a difference with Moss Wood where Semillon has sufficient depth and complexity to continue as a varietal wine.