Moss Wood 2022 Semillon
| Wine Facts | |
|---|---|
| Median Harvest Date | 9th March, 2022 |
| Mean Harvest Ripeness | 13.5°Be |
| Yield | 9.06 t/ha |
| Growing Season Ave Temperature | 21.1⁰C |
| Number of hours accrued between 18 and 28⁰C | 961 hours |
| Number of hours above 33⁰C | 118 hours |
| Days Elapsed between Flowering and Harvest | 113 days |
| Bottled | 7th July, 2022 |
| Released | 1st September, 2022 |
| Alcohol | 14.50 % |
Wine Facts
-
Median Harvest Date
9th March, 2022
-
Mean Harvest Ripeness
13.5° Be
-
Yield
9.06 t/ha
-
Weather Data
Growing Season Ave Temperature – 21.1⁰C
Number of hours accrued between 18 and 28⁰C – 961 hours
Number of hours above 33⁰C – 118 hours
-
Days Elapsed between Flowering and Harvest
113 days
-
Bottled
7th July, 2022
-
Released
1st September, 2022
-
Alcohol
14.50%
Moss Wood 2024 Semillon – Ray Jordan, Ray Jordan Wine
This is a slightly fuller style than previously. Perhaps a product of the warmer vintage or an indication of a somewhat new direction for the variety. Regardless, it retains the essential linear mouthfeel and intensity of lemon zest and citrus. A crisp zingy acid sustains the long finish—an immediately appealing…
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 2023 Semillon – Stuart Knox, The Real Review
Bright lime and lemon colours shine through the glass. Grapefruit, melon and chopped green herb aromatics. The palate has a tension and drive that instantly draws you in. Citrus fruit and hints of leafy greens add complexity whilst that driving acidity ensures it carries very long and crisp to the…
Moss Wood 2023 Semillon – Fergal Gleeson, Great Wine Blog
The Moss Wood 2023 Semillon leads with lemon and Granny Smith flavours. Dig a little deeper for fig and nectarine. It’s a riper and fuller bodied expression than Hunter releases. Still has that underlying chalk, dryness and acid line to keep everything tidy. Always highly pointed by wine critics but…
Moss Wood 2023 Semillon – Ray Jordan, Ray Jordan Wine
Remains one of my favourite Moss Wood wines, and certainly one of my favourite semillons. And this one from the great ’23 vintage is right up there with anything. It seems a more pungent and intense semillon than previous years and probably a result of the vintage which produced such…
Moss Wood 2023 Semillon – Angus Hughson, Wine Pilot.com
Immediately engaging thanks to excellent upfront volume of hay and honeydew melon with touches of lanolin which offer an impressive start. It then delivers a nicely textured and weighty expression with finer acidity than usual, but impresses with sheer power and youthful energy. An excellent vintage for this Margaret River…
Moss Wood 2023 Semillon – Ned Goodwin, jamessuckling.com
This is exceptional semillon, made with a stylistic nod to white Grave as much as fealty to Margaret River’s oath of immaculate ripeness, melded to a saline pop of freshness. Full-weighted, yet light on its feet. Some unresolved CO2 is as effective as the drag of acidity in promoting freshness….
Moss Wood 2023 Semillon – Gary Walsh, The Wine Front
Gee, they’ve turned out an excellent Semillon in 2023. No oak employed here. Ripe green apple, quince, lime leaf, citrus blossom, a little spice and jalapeño. It’s flavoursome, but balanced, with a fine grip, green melon and citrus, arrowroot biscuits, and a bright and long finish offering lime zest and…
Moss Wood 2023 Semillon – Andrew Caillard, Wine Pilot.com – The Vintage Journal
Pale colour. Lifted grassy, lemon curd hint marzipan aromas with hints of aniseed. Attractive lemon curd, tropical fruit marzipan flavours, fine chalky textures, impressive mid-palate volume and well balanced linear fresh acidity. Generous and richly flavoured wine with lovely fruit definition and impact. Delicious to drink now but should keep…
Moss Wood 2023 Semillon – Ken Gargett, Wine Pilot.com
Always one of the most exciting West Aussie Semillons and this release is no different. The vintage notes from the team at Moss Wood rave about 2023. Cynics amongst might suggest that these guys really wouldn’t know a poor vintage if they ever had the misfortune to encounter one. It…
Vintage Notes
After the complicated stories of the 2021 Chardonnay and 2020 Pinot Noir, we are delighted (and relieved) to report the 2021/22 season was near-perfect. Conditions were warm and dry and we have to go back to 1983 for a similar year.
Mother Nature was in a relaxed mood for the entirety of the season. For example, calendar year 2021 is one of our wettest years on record, 44% above average and yet, just as the Semillon started flowering in mid-November, the rain stopped. Conditions remained dry and temperatures were warm, with only one day below 8°C.
Hot conditions prevailed right through the summer, including the hottest days since February 1985, when the mercury peaked at 40.2°C on 26th December 2021 and 40.1°C on 19th January 2022. In fact, across the full season, the Semillon enjoyed 118 hours above 33°C. We didn’t lack for warmth!
With everything going in our favour, we had high hopes when we started picking on 19th March 2022 and we weren’t disappointed. The ripeness came in at 13.5° Baume, slightly above the average of 12.8° and yields were a creditable 9.06 tonnes per hectare, a mere 6% down, not bad at all for a vineyard celebrating its 50th birthday this year.
Reflecting on the 1983 Moss Wood Semillon, that particular vintage expressed clear, ripe fruit aromas of ripe figs and excitingly for us, the 2022 vintage has big dollops of exactly the same thing. Given they were similarly warm years, this doesn’t come as a surprise but it’s still a thrill to see that intensity. To give some context to these comments and for those interested in a bit of history, the 1983 Moss Wood Semillon was our most successful white wine ever in the wine show system. At the 1983 Perth Royal Show it was awarded a Gold Medal and received the trophy for the Best Western Australian White Wine in the show. This was donated by the Rural and Industries Bank and included a cash prize of $500, no insignificant amount in those days. The owners of Moss Wood at the time, Bill and Sandra Pannell, very generously allowed one Keith Mugford to pocket the proceeds. It was quite a day!
Production Notes
The production steps were very much in line with our traditional recipe, apart from one small change. The fruit was hand-picked and delivered to the winery where it was hand-sorted and then whole-bunch pressed.
At this point, we introduced a new technique.
In the past, the pressed juice was clarified using cold settling, a process that uses enormous amounts of energy to chill the juice down and hold it at 10°C for several days. For 2022, we introduced flotation, where the solids are floated to the surface and the clear juice taken from underneath. The juice is held at 18°C and clarified in a few hours. The energy and time savings are huge, not to mention the juice proceeds quickly into primary fermentation, reducing the risk of oxidation.
After this, the must was inoculated for primary fermentation with multiple yeast strains and ferment temperatures were controlled to 18°C.
Just to be clear, the wine had no contact with wood, either for fermentation or for aging. It is made in the classic, fruit-dominant Australian style and was held only in stainless steel tanks.
Once the sugar level reached dryness, the wine was racked off gross lees, fined with bentonite for protein stability and then cold stabilised. It was sterile filtered and bottled on 7th July 2022. We always bottle the Semillon as quickly as we can to capture as much of its youthful fruit notes as possible.
Tasting Notes
Colour and condition:
Pale to medium straw hue, with green tints; bright condition.
Nose:
Bright, lifted aromas of ripe figs, some lemon and granny smith apple notes, with a touch of lanolin and mushroom in the background.
Palate:
The initial impression is one of generous, long fruit flavours, consisting on figs, apple and preserved lemon. There is good weight and length, with fresh acidity and some soft tannins on the finish.
Cellaring
For those with the patience and the room in their wine fridges, or, better still, in their cellar, if you enjoy old Semillon, this will be a worthy addition and will repay long term aging. It will need at least 10 years to show bottle complexity in the form of some buttery and toasty notes but at least a further 10 years for them to become dominant. In the meantime, for those who enjoy the generous fruit notes of young white wines, it offers very good drinking in the meantime.