Reviews Archives - Moss Wood

Moss Wood Ribbon Vale 2023 Merlot -Ray Jordan

Moss Wood Ribbon Vale 2023 Merlot Creative Image

This vineyard has been producing some of Australia’s best merlots in recent years. This one is perhaps the most refined and elegantly poised of any I can recall. The vintage has clearly played an important part. The nose shows all of those black fruit, spicy, slightly mocha-like characters. While the seamlessly integrated medium to full-bodied palate delivers with such exquisite elegance. Restrained and poised it might be, but there is an intensity here that delivers with a sustained finish. A thoroughly exquisite merlot.
Cellar: 15 years

97 Points

Rating: Stars

Moss Wood 2025 Autrement Pinot Noir – Ray Jordan

So this is a wine that’s been sourced from further south at Karridale, a region that is far cooler than the Wilyabrup sub-region of Moss Wood. Outremont is French for “another way”, and that explains Moss Wood’s sourcing of pinot from another region. There’s a beautiful perfumed red fruit aroma, cherry, and subtle red fruits. The palate is vibrant with high energy, driving those intense red berry characters. Tannins are quite fine and slightly chalky. The oak is neatly integrated, and the fruit intensity builds and then gathers momentum through to a very long finish. This is quite an exciting development for Moss Wood.
Cellar: 10 years

95 Points

Rating: Stars

Moss Wood Ribbon Vale 2025 Chardonnay – Ray Jordan

This vineyard has really been turning out some quite marvellous wines in recent years. It took a bit of work, but the results are in the bottle. This is a beautiful, vibrant, lively chardonnay with that subtle degree of complexity complementing the natural fruit characters. Nutty lemon curd and deeper stone fruit characters on the nose. And yet on the palate it presents with such poise and restraint, though with a deep palate intensity that extends effortlessly to a very long finish. That lovely refreshing acidity and its slightly savoury characters complete what is a very good wine.
Cellar: 10 years

96 Points

Rating: Stars

Moss Wood Ribbon Vale 2025 Elsa – Ray Jordan

I’ve been a fan of this wine since it was introduced just a few years ago, and I have to say, this one from what was an excellent season stacks up with any that have yet been released. It’s a largely sauvignon blanc with a small percentage of semillon, varieties which have always done well in this vineyard. But this is no ordinary SBS. c, a variety that has always done well in this vineyard. Aromas of complex nutty citrus with a slightly savoury character. And yet for me, it’s the palate where this wine really hits its straps. It’s textured, it’s delicate, and yet it has a deep flavour intensity with such lingering persistence. A marvellous example of this style.
Cellar: 10 years

96 Points

Rating: Stars

Moss Wood 2023 Cabernet Sauvignon – Gary Walsh

I’ve not given it much thought to date, because Moss Wood has been a part of my wine life for many decades, but it just occurred to me that it’s quite an unusual and evocative name for a winery. Anyway, if I stretch my memory back, this maybe puts me in mind of the 2005 vintage. I guess that’s one of the good things about having old people review wines, though, admittedly, I still feel quite young. I’m prone to saying “That 2004 is a good wine eh?” to my partner, and she says “I think you mean 2024!”. Oh hell.

Blueberry, mulberry, hazelnut and nutmeg, assorted spice, some aniseed and cedar, a floral and tea-like perfume. It’s a quieter release of this wine, less thunder, more finesse, a juicy and nutty character, praline and even a suggestion of red fruits. There’s a fine ferrous grip to tannin, a supple feel to it, all in balance, and the finish is so long and fine. Lovely. It’ll be worth the wait.

Drink : 2029 – 2048+

96 Points

Rating: Stars

Moss Wood 2023 Cabernet Sauvignon – Ray Jordan Wine

I’ve been waiting for this wine to be released for some time. I had great expectation that this wonderful vineyard from this exceptional vintage would produce something equally exceptional. Well, guess what? It has. This is such a beautiful example of what Moss Wood cabernet is all about. There’s nothing big and brutish here. This is elegance. This is precision. This is brilliance. High-end florals on the nose with traces of violet, red currant, and then on the palate, that beautiful, restrained suppleness that deceived so many people in the early years of Moss Wood reveals itself, and yet as always, there’s a deep and lingering intensity that persists through to an exceptionally long finish. This is simply stunning. I do not believe there has been a better Moss Wood.

Cellar: 30 years

99 Points

Rating: Stars

Moss Wood 2023 Cabernet Sauvignon – Edward Agg, The Cellar Post

This is right up there with the best in recent memory. Wonderfully complex on the nose. Blackberries, cassis, raspberry, violets, cedar, tobacco, graphite and pencil shaving, something exotic there too, rummy and clove. Medium-full on the palate, superb detail and elegance. The fruit and spice complexity seems effortless yet intense. Juicy cassis, violet, pencil graphite and cigar box. Excellent acidity and balance. This’ll age like a gem. This is a beautiful wine.

Drink – 2028–2045+

March, 2026

96 Points

Rating: Stars

Moss Wood 2023 Cabernet Sauvignon – Ken Gargett, The Wine Pilot

No doubt many winelovers have been eagerly awaiting this wine, one of the last of Margaret River’s big guns from the stunning 2023 vintage. This brilliant Cabernet saw all parcels harvested fermented separately in small open fermenters. Maturation was in French oak barriques, 15% new. The final blend included 4% Cabernet Franc and 4% Petit Verdot. Deep maroon with a magenta edge, there is such power and finesse in this wine. Balance, length and structure are all world class. A take-me-now-Lord wine if ever there was one. The great 2023 vintage strikes again. Is this the best wine Moss Wood has ever made? It certainly must come very close. The nose reveals aromas of cassis, mulberries, plums, charcuterie, cigar boxes and blackberries. The structure is seamless through to the silkiest of tannins. There is great length and persistence here and the balance is knife-edge. If you doubt me as to the brilliant quality of this wine, please see if you can find a wine from Bordeaux at this price which comes close to this quality. Then we’ll talk. This is just a cracker. Thirty years standing on its head.

99 Points

Rating: Stars

Moss Wood Ribbon Vale 2023 Cabernet Sauvignon – Ken Gargett, Wine Pilot

Cabernet Sauvignon this Margaret River wine from the Ribbon Vale Vineyard may be, but it is very much the traditional Bordeaux blend, with 2.5% of Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Malbec and Petit Verdot included in the mix. From the 2023 vintage, which continues grow in reputation with every wine released, this must surely be the best Cab under the Ribbon Vale label yet made. Maturation was for twenty-eight months in French oak barriques, 17% of them new. Dark mauve/crimson with a purple rim, this is both elegant and yet intense. There is incredible length and immaculate balance with serious persistence. The nose offers notes of chocolate, kirsch, tobacco leaves, dried herbs, cocoa beans, aniseed, mulberries and blackberries. Tannins are amix of silk and gravel, and we see cassis emerging towards the finish. A wine which will provide immense pleasure for at least the next fifteen to twenty years, though winelovers will be raving over well-cellared bottles long after that. Love it.

96 Points

Rating: Stars

Moss Wood Ribbon Vale 2023 Merlot – Ken Gargett, Wine Pilot

This Margaret River Merlot from the Ribbon Vale Vineyard also enjoys the presence of 7% Cabernet Sauvignon and 7% Cabernet Franc. Maturation was in French oak barriques, 18% new, for twenty-eight months. The colour is a gleaming maroon, while the nose reveals aromas of plum pudding, blackcurrants, plums, cloves, beefstock, dried herbs and chocolate. There is focus and direction here. Quite an elegant style with good length and very fine tannins, it will probably be at its peak in around six to eight years, but will certainly provide pleasure before and after.

93 Points

Rating: Stars