Moss Wood 2014 Chardonnay

L22_20151118_MOSS WOOD_White bg label_Chardonnay 2014 750ml

Wine Facts

Median Harvest: 20/02/2014
Bottled: 30/09/2015
Released: 18/11/2015
Yield: 7.38 t/ha
Baume: 12.7⁰ Be
Alcohol: 14.00%
Vintage Rating: 10/10

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Moss Wood 2014 Chardonnay – Josh Raynolds, Vinous

Pale yellow-gold. Assertive scents of pear and peach nectar, tangerine and iodine; a smoky mineral flourish adds vivacity. Silky and expansive in the mouth, offering intense orchard and pit fruit flavors along with hints of fennel and buttery brioche. Conveys a deft blend of richness and energy and finishes gently sweet and impressively long, leaving…

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Moss Wood 2014 Chardonnay – Bob Campbell, bobcampbell.nz

Rich, oaky and quite concentrated Chardonnay, with sweet fruit restrained by gently spiky tannins. Peach, quince, sizzled butter, brioche and plenty of nutty oak. A bold, flavoursome wine that promises to develop well 18/1/2016

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Moss Wood 2014 Chardonnay – Michael Pikarkus – michaelpinkuswinereview.com

Coming from the Margaret River area, this Chardonnay sees only a third new oak, the rest goes into older oak helping to keep the fruit’s freshness intact: hints of vanilla are carried by a gorgeous seam of fresh, ripe fruit that is tropical in nature, plus there’s the usual peach, pear and apple goodness to…

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Moss Wood 2014 Chardonnay – Jancis Robinson – jancisrobinson.com

Pale lemon yellow. Strong citrus notes and still quite lean in terms of weight and acidity but with admirable satin texture. This should improve. 16

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Moss Wood 2014 Chardonnay – James Suckling – jamessuckling.com

The toffee and creme brulee characters with cooked fruit character is impressive. Apricots underneath. Full and flavorful. So much here. Drink now.

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Moss Wood 2014 Chardonnay – Graeme Phillips – The Mercury Hobart

A wine with lots of character and a long future with subtle grapefruit and melon aromas and a refined stone fruit, nutty, malty and buttery palate.

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Moss Wood 2014 Chardonnay – James Halliday – The Wine Companion

It’s hard to find fault in the wine; it has an incisive edge to the mouthfeel, the fruit flavours precisely placed on the tipping point between citrus and stone fruit, benefiting from both, but not at the expense of the other…

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Moss Wood 2014 Chardonnay – Graeme Philips – Hobart Mercury, Hobart – March 2016

A wine with lots of character and a long future, the nose showing subtle grapefruit and melon characters and refined stone fruit, nutty and malty, buttery notes in the mouth with a touch of spicy oak adding depth and complexity.

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Moss Wood 2014 Chardonnay – Lisa Perrotti Brown MW – Robert Parker Wine Advocate, March 2016

“The 2014 Chardonnay, which saw 100% malolactic fermentation, has a pronounced and seductive, honeyed-peach and marzipan nose with a cinnamon toast and ginger undercurrent. Apple tart, as well as yeasty and toasty notes grace the silky palate, which has a long and savory finish. This Chardonnay has beautiful harmony and should age well for 5-7…

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Moss Wood 2014 Chardonnay – John Lewis – Newcastle Herald

AS the Moss Wood 2014 Wilyabrup Chardonnay shows, Margaret River does chardonnay well. This has 14.2 per cent alcohol, is green-tinted light gold and has preserved lemon and vanilla bean scents. Intense golden peach flavour shows on the front palate, mango, spice, lemongrass and cashew oak combine on the middle and slatey acid refreshes. DRINK…

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Moss Wood 2014 Chardonnay – Cameron Douglas – camerondouglasms.blogspot.co.nz

Quite a complex bouquet build around specific components nutty, cashew-like new oak, fresh California peach, red apple, toasty butter moments and a synergy these elements bring to the wine. On the palate – dry, spicy, warm and rich in flavour and texture; plenty of stone fruit reminders with peach and some apricot; lots of red…

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Tasting Notes

The wine has a medium to deep straw colour and is in bright condition.

The nose has the full complement of Moss Wood Chardonnay fruit aromas - limes, peaches, marmalade, roast almond and malt biscuit. The extended barrel age and malolactic fermentation has added in some toasty, spicy oak and interesting bread and caramel notes. Complex, indeed.

The same themes continue on the palate, with full body and high acidity combining with peach, nut and cheese flavours, providing generosity and length. The finish has some toasty oak, with some tannin evident.

Vintage Notes

If we wanted to reproduce an ideal growing season for chardonnay, we’d almost certainly use 2013/14 as the blueprint where just about everything worked in our favour. We had good rain during spring that fell at the right time, so there was no disruption to the flowering. Our management of the vineyard worked well and we avoided disease and bird damage and all of this combined to give us crop levels of slightly above average.
Most importantly, Mother Nature smiled on us, giving us literally day after day of good ripening conditions and the numbers tell the story. In the end, chardonnay enjoyed a luxurious 1046 hours between 18 and 28⁰C, when all it needs is 700 to ripen the crop. In addition, it received 29 hours above 33⁰C, enough to ensure consistent ripe fruit characters but way below our designated excess extreme heat level of 80 hours. All up, we picked some of the best Chardonnay fruit ever at 12.7⁰ Baume on 20th February.

Production Notes

After a positive start in the vineyard, we dared not make any mistakes and set about carefully shepherding our new baby through the winemaking process.

The fruit was whole bunch pressed and the juice was captured and settled in stainless steel tanks for 48 hours. The clear juice was racked off, with a light inclusion of solids and fermentation commenced in stainless steel, using pure yeast cultures. Once successfully under way the fermenting juice was then racked to barrel. All casks were 228 litre French oak and 43% of them were new.

Moss Wood has 5 individual chardonnay vineyards, all of which ripen at slightly different times and so this wine typically starts its life as at least 3 individual batches. When they all finish fermentation, they are blended together and returned to barrel as a finished wine and this was carried out on 17th March 2015. Next, it underwent a full malolactic fermentation, whereupon it was racked once more, adjusted with tartaric acid and sulphur dioxide and returned to barrel.

It stayed in oak until 8th September 2015, giving the blended wine a total 20 months. Fining was with bentonite for protein stability and then it was sterile filtered and bottled on 30th September, 2015.

Cellaring Notes

As usual for Moss Wood Chardonnay, it is a very drinkable youngster and can be enjoyed now. However, it is definitely a wine for the cellaring enthusiast and will begin to show some bottle development by 10 years of age. For those who like their chardonnays to mature to the point where the secondary characters are dominant, they should wait until the wine is at least 20 years old.

 

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