The History and Evolution of Moss Wood Cabernet Sauvignon: The Blank Canvas
The first vintage in 1973 was a classic blank canvas. The Margaret River wine region, at least in its modern iteration, was experiencing just its second harvest. This meant much excitement and trepidation as growers confronted some fundamental questions. What can be expected in terms of wine style? When is the right time to pick? What is the best technique? Looking back, we can say that luckily for Moss Wood, Bill and Sandra Pannell made some very good choices. Nevertheless, it’s impossible to overstate how challenging this was at the time, and it would be too easy to see this through the lens of what our region looks like now.
To begin with, the availability of basic services was almost non-existent. Vineyard and winemaking companies typically didn’t have offices in WA, so ordering equipment and supplies was slow and complicated, especially when trying to purchase the specialized materials needed for small batch winemaking, something that was very uncommon in the Australian industry of the time. To their great credit, local agricultural supply businesses did their best to stock the necessary products but, of course, they had little or no experience and were learning with and from the industry. Compare that to now, when most of the best international suppliers have agencies here in Margaret River. It’s a different world.
The work of Dr John Gladstones was the key to the development of the region in at least two ways. Firstly, when he published his 1965 data it showed the temperatures of Margaret River’s maritime climate compared favourably with the great Bordeaux region in France. The idea that there may exist an opportunity to make international quality wines in WA was too tempting for people to ignore and so the process began. Secondly, if Bordeaux was the comparable region, then Cabernet Sauvignon must be the variety to plant and so it was.
There was an international view at the time that red wines from Australia’s traditional, and warmer, regions were too ripe and tannic and lacking in elegance. It’s amusing to reflect on how that has now changed and famous wines like Penfolds Grange and Henschke Hill of Grace are now revered. Regardless, this meant there was a feeling in the early years of Margaret River that the region should focus on more elegant wines and that a Bordeaux style was where producers should aim.
Naturally enough, we sought to learn about the home of Cabernet Sauvignon and read as widely as possible on the subject. Edmond Penning-Rowsell, founder of the Wine Society in the UK, had written one of the best books on Bordeaux, which provided insights into the region, its vineyards and techniques. When he visited Australia in the late 1970’s, a trip which included Margaret River, he commented favourably on the area’s Cabernet wines and this provided even greater inspiration.
The context here is important because specialized, small-batch winemaking was almost unheard of. Wine industry focus was on large scale production and in some respects, mimicked California and its big production facilities of the time. Of course, things have now changed there, too. This also meant there was a strong American influence at an academic level, made easier by the common language, English. Although the great French oenologists like Ribreau-Gayon and Peynaud were known in Australia, their work wasn’t widely translated and remained in the realm of the esoteric. Only the truly nerdy types had any great knowledge of them.
This meant learning about Bordeaux was something of a labour of love, ridiculed by many as completely impractical and not worth bothering with. Perseverance in the face of this skepticism shows just how focused and dedicated the early pioneers in Margaret River really were.
The classified growths of Bordeaux are not cheap but they are highly sought-after and available in Australia. In WA, there just happened to be enough like-minded people who got together as frequently as possible to taste and debate these wines to try and understand what made them great and how we might apply that learning to our own wines. Special mention must go to John Jens, legendary and long serving Perth wine retailer, who organized and promoted so many of these tastings. Apart from the first growths, other names considered benchmarks were Chateau Pichon Lalande, Chateau Leoville Las Cases and Chateau Palmer. Astute followers of Moss Wood will recall the former also provided the inspiration for our original label, with its simple and uncluttered style, showing vineyard, producer and vintage. These were the elegant, Cabernet Sauvignon-based wines we chose to emulate.
In the meantime, the viticultural times, to paraphrase Bob Dylan, they were a changin’. The senior lecturer in Viticulture during Keith’s time at Roseworthy College was Dr Richard Smart. Richard, a man of great intellect and boundless energy, completed his PhD at no less an institution than Cornell University, under another viticulture legend, Dr Nelson Shaulis. Shaulis developed an innovative trellis system, the Geneva Double Curtain, named after the location of Cornell’s agriculture research campus in New York state. His work on canopy management impressed Richard, who brought the ideas back to Australia and further developed the concepts. His openness to ideas meant he invited Dr Alain Carbonneaux, from the University of Bordeaux and a very proficient English speaker, to present at Roseworthy College. Carbonneaux had done similar vine canopy work and developed his Lyre Trellis and he explained, in detail, the mechanisms responsible for both its quality and quantity. To one Keith Mugford in the audience, it was a fascinating process.
Since Margaret River was truly a blank canvas, not limited by existing traditions, all these grapegrowing and winemaking ideas fell on fertile ground and no option was off the table. By roughly 1980, growers were bringing innovations into the vineyards. Erl Happ began using the Lyre Trellis, while Mike Peterkin at Pierro was even more avant garde, using the classical French planting distance of 1 metre between vines and 1 metre between rows, with a canopy of roughly the same height, which required careful maintenance. Consider for a moment what this meant. In a very conservative industry, where the intervine distance was typically at least 1.8 metres, the row width was at least 3 metres and the canopy sprawled and was often 2 metres in height, yet here was a grower who went completely against the conventional wisdom. Gradually, Margaret River vineyards, including Moss Wood, which uses the Henry Trellis, developed in Oregon by space engineer turned grapegrower, Scott Henry, began to look like carefully maintained hedges, something largely unheard of at the time, in Australia.
In amongst all this, the wine style we now know as Moss Wood Cabernet Sauvignon began to evolve.