Moss Wood 2015 Chardonnay
Wine Facts
| Median Harvest: | 16/02/2016 |
| Bottled: | 11/10/2016 |
| Released: | 20/10/2016 |
| Yield: | 6.24 t/ha |
| Median Harvest Ripeness: | 12.6⁰ Baume |
| Alcohol: | 13.5% |
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…
Before we go into commentary about this new release, we’d like to point out that this calendar year is something of a milestone for our Chardonnay. As we write this newsletter, it is almost exactly 40 years ago to the day since it was first planted at Moss Wood, making us one of the few vineyards in Australia that have genuinely old Chardonnay vines and we can only hope we are doing justice to the grapes these grand old things are producing.
Tasting Notes
In keeping with such a good season, this wine has much to recommend it. The colour is light to medium straw, with green tints and the condition is bright. The nose has significant volume, with ethereal aromas of limes and blossom, sitting over Chardonnay’s riper fruit characters of peaches and nuts. Lightly toasty oak notes sit in the background, along with subtle cheese and meaty notes. This complexity follows along the palate, where there are bright lime, peach and roast cashew flavours. Structure is firm, with high acidity and some tannins on the finish but this is balanced by full and excellent length.
Vintage Notes
Ripening Time from Flowering to Harvest: 117 days
Spring 2014 was definitely one for vineyard managers who enjoy a challenge, with regular rainfall that tested our spray program, as well as causing havoc while the vines were flowering. As an amusing aside, 2014 was the wettest year in the 37 that we have been involved at Moss Wood – 1245mm rain fell, some 26% above average.
When we have lots of rain, temperatures remain mild, so in 2014 we had an extended flowering period of 48 days, nearly twice as long as normal. Fortunately, this also meant overnight. temperatures were generally higher, something the vines really enjoy and probably offset the rain to a degree. In the end the final yield of 6.24 tonnes per hectare was only 10% down.
The remainder of the growing season was positively splendid. Temperatures were mild to warm and we didn’t register a day over 37⁰C. The vines experienced nearly endless hours in their preferred range for photosynthesis and it could be said the Chardonnay strode slowly, steadily and gracefully to its harvest date of 16th February, when it had achieved a ripeness of 12.6⁰ Baume.
Production Notes
All the fruit was hand-picked then whole bunch pressed, with the juice collected and racked to stainless steel tank, where it was settled for 48 hours. The clear juice was racked to stainless steel and fermentation commenced, using a variety of yeasts. Once the initial, aggressive stage was completed in the controlled temperature environment of the tank, the wine was then racked in to barrel. All barrels were 228 litre French oak and 45% were new. It stayed in barrel for 19 months and during that time underwent a full malolactic fermentation.
In September the wine was racked from barrel, fined for heat stability, then sterile filtered and bottled on 11th October, 2016.
Cellaring Notes
Cellaring time will be typical Moss Wood, with the wine requiring at least 10 years aging to develop the beginnings of its bottle bouquet but a further 10 years beyond that to reach full maturity. In the meantime, it will be just as rewarding to consume as a youngster, where its bright fruit characters make it easy to enjoy.