The History and Evolution of Moss Wood Cabernet Sauvignon: 1973-1979 The Early Years

An important first step was the decision by the Pannells to use small, open tanks, with hand plunging, for red wine fermentations.  Although labour intensive, it is the gentlest technique for extraction of colour and flavour and we use it to this day.  They also used “small” oak barrels, instead of the larger formats that were more common.  Initially, the smallest available volume was hogsheads, or 300 litres but when they became available, we began using the traditional barrique, or 228 litres, the preferred volume for high quality wine and once again and once again, we still use them today.

With such a sound technique, it meant we could focus on the vineyard and things like harvest ripeness to determine the style.  As luck would have it, from 1973 to 1978, there had been sufficient variation between the seasons and the resulting wines for us to draw some important insights.

Using chronological order, 1973 was what we might call average.  Cabernet Sauvignon ripened well and made a wine with very promising fruit depth.  Things changed in 1974 when the season was cooler, resulting in similar, if more restrained fruit characters and the finished wine was more tannic.  A similar mild year followed in 1975 but tannin balance was better and this vintage eventually became one of our benchmarks.  The summer of 1976 was warm and dry and produced a ripe, soft Cabernet Sauvignon, also very highly regarded and a gold medal winner at the Royal Perth Show and is probably the wine for bringing Moss Wood into the public eye.  Similar conditions, although slightly cooler, prevailed in 1977, and the result was another fully ripened wine but with firmer tannin than its 1976 sibling.  The warm, ripe theme continued in 1978, a vintage that should have been great but sadly the wine suffered fermentation problems and developed hydrogen sulphide. The problem was treated but it left the wine more subdued than Moss Wood Cabernet Sauvignon had typically been.  Since the Cabernet Sauvignon moniker had become so important, the Pannells decided the ’78 should be declassified and sold as “Dry Red”, a brave decision to protect the newly emerging brand.

When Keith arrived for the 1979 vintage, there were many and lengthy tastings, using these different vintages, when Sandra, Bill and Keith debated what style to pursue.  In the end, reflecting the thinking of the time, if elegance and complexity were the goals, then 1975 had to be the target.

We also wrestled with the criticism that Moss Wood’s youthful tannin balance made it less than suitable for aging.  The gist of the argument was that classic claret-style wines needed firm structure to ensure long term cellaring and there were doubts that our Cabernet Sauvignon met that requirement.  Our response at the time was the wines had more than sufficient tannin and their early balance was the product of good fruit depth ameliorating the impact.  The result was early drinkability but our feeling was the wines would still age.  Without a lengthy history to use as a reference, we couldn’t emphasise this point with complete confidence, although we certainly believed it to be true.  Our hope was that as our library of vintages grew, the longevity would become self-evident.  In the meantime, we had to be cautious about our cellaring recommendations and suggested 5 years aging before consumption, based on the wines’ fruit depth and good chemistry.

With the help of our great mate, Gill Thomas, we were able to find a solution.  After the experience of the firmer tannins of 1974, Sandra and Bill were cautious about including too much of the pressings in the following vintages.  Gill, who took holidays from his Pharmacy business in Bunbury to assist with the Moss Wood vintage, couldn’t bear to see any wine wasted.  Instead, he brought his own barrels and pressed every last drop out of the skins and took the pressings home to age in his cellar.  After a year or so, he bottled each batch off and was very happy to share the results.  From this informal trial we quickly concluded that all the pressings should be blended into finished wine straight away, and every vintage back to and including 1980 has been made this way.

Returning now to the chronology of vintages, 1979 was a consistent warm summer, somewhat on the mild side and made wine not dissimilar in style to the 1975 upon which it was modelled.  Along came 1980, one of the great Australian vintages, a very typical summer, tending to warm.  It produced a ripe, soft and generous Cabernet Sauvignon.