Reviews Archives - Moss Wood

Moss Wood Ribbon Vale 2022 Merlot – Angus Hughson, Wine Pilot

This serious Merlot from 2022 is again putting Moss Wood forward as one of the country’s top performers with this variety. It opens with a powerful and tightly focussed core of blackberry and cedar with touches of crushed leaves, and a strong savoury feel. Impressive intensity and fruit drive takes it up a notch, with bright acidity and muscular tannins holding firm. Impeccable and significant tannins with a supremely long finish mark this as one of the greats.

95 Points

Rating: Stars

Moss Wood 2023 Amy’s – Angus Hughson, Wine Pilot

The 2023 Amy’s blend of Cabernet Sauvignon with Petit Verdot, Malbec and Merlot is highly approachable at this young age with enveloping aromas of blackcurrant and gravel with a strong dark earth component. Excellent upfront impact with a seamless core of dark berry fruits, primed with acidity and underpinned by fine, pliable tannins. A firm drying finish supports good longevity.

92 Points

Rating: Stars

Moss Wood 2024 Semillon – Angus Hughson, Wine Pilot

A more generously proportioned Moss Wood Semillon with ample nectarine and melon fruit with strong nut kernel accents. Quite textural with creamy acidity that sits well within the overall package, with some more crushed nutty tones to finish. Ready to enjoy now.

91 Points

Rating: Stars

Moss Wood 2023 Chardonnay – Angus Hughson, Wine Pilot

A more refined edition of Moss Wood Chardonnay bursting with sherbet, melon, and citrus tones that are powerful, taut and well integrated with toasty French oak. Bone dry and embryonic, it is highly reserved with a chalky texture while just starting to build nutty, peanut brittle tones. Super young and tightly wound, this is a standout Moss Wood Chardonnay.

93 Points

Rating: Stars

Moss Wood Ribbon Vale 2022 Cabernet Sauvignon – Angus Hughson, Wine Pilot

This compact 2022 Cabernet Sauvignon delivers a youthful, measured expression of cassis, bay leaf and cedar with a fine French oak accompaniment. Stil quit tight in a young claret style, yet holding its line very well for an extended, structural finish thanks to mouthcoating tannins. Shy right now and needs time to build.

93 Points

Rating: Stars

Moss Wood 2022 Pinot Noir – Angus Hughson, Wine Pilot

Moss Wood Pinot Noir bottle image with atmospheric background.

This charming 2022 Margaret River Pinot Noir is expressive and radiates with cherry pit and rolling tobacco lined with spicy undertones and a generous but well integrated serve of French oak. It then takes a wild turn, with engaging gamey, earthy complexity taking charge with a supple texture and a nice twist of acidity. Good allround complexity although needs a little time to build texture.

91 Points

Rating: Stars

Moss Wood 2014 Cabernet Sauvignon – Erin Larkin, The Wine Advocate

The 2014 Cabernet Sauvignon leads with spiced maple and star anise, pomegranate molasses and blood plum. It is inky without being dense or heavy and uncoils out through a long and undulating finish. There are notes of red toffee apple and coffee beans, raspberry pip and nori, bay leaf and saltbush. A wonderful wine, it’s only just starting to enter its next phase of evolution. It’s astoundingly graceful and likely in need of a decant. Super. There’s so much going on here. It is sapid and sanguine and speaks of the red gravel and ironstone that it was grown in. We know from older vintages of this wine that it ages for 40 years with ease, and taking into account that those earlier wines were made from younger vine fruit, the drinking window is surely extended now. 14% alcohol, sealed under screw cap.

97 Points

Rating: Stars

Moss Wood Ribbon Vale 2020 Merlot – Erin Larkin, The Wine Advocate

The 2020 Ribbon Vale Merlot is concentrated and pert/energetic in the mouth. The fruit leans from black cherry to raspberry to nori and back to black tea, swinging in the palate like a weathervane in the breeze. The length of flavor through the finish is long and lingering, and it speaks of Margaret River so thoroughly in its maritime freshness that it brings a smile to the face. It’s a brilliant wine, with excellent concentration, poise and polish.

94 Points

Rating: Stars

Moss Wood Ribbon Vale 2020 Cabernet Sauvignon – Erin Larkin, The Wine Advocate

The 2020 season in Margaret River was warm, low-yielding, dry and very early—one of the earliest on record. The wines produced in this year are, across the board, concentrated and full of flavor (and tannin). This 2020 Ribbon Vale Cabernet Sauvignon is all of those things, a perfect barometer of the vintage. The most pronounced character in this wine, at this point, is the oak (as you first taste it), swiftly followed by the fruit, which subsumes all in the mouth. The tannins come next, with loads of ductile density and structure. Finally, as the wine unfurls through the finish, the pedigree of the site comes to the fore (new clones planted/grafted in the past five or so years are really paying off). This is a very serious Cabernet offering from an excellent vintage. It will be even better in a few years.

94 Points

Rating: Stars

Moss Wood 2021 Chardonnay – Erin Larkin, The Wine Advocate

In October 2021, I stopped in for half a day at Moss Wood and tasted through the Chardonnays (estate and Ribbon Vale) and Cabernets (estate and Ribbon Vale) from barrel, to help me better understand the spectrum of coopers and their impact on the finished wines. So, having looked at this wine two years ago, broken down into four different components, I can see how this finished product came to be this way. There was plenty of rain about in 2021, and the later-picked Moss Wood Chardonnay fruit benefited from some extra hang time after the first deluge in early to mid-February. The 2021 Chardonnay is concentrated and nutty and littered with roasted pineapple, citrus flesh, creamed cashew, red apples and clotted cream. Loads of acid mingling with the fruit. This is a deep, rich wine, consistent with the Moss Wood Chardonnay style. 14% alcohol, sealed under screw cap.

94 Points

Rating: 4 Stars