Wine Reviews

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…
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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…
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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.
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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…
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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…
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Moss Wood 2022 Pinot Noir – Angus Hughson, Wine Pilot
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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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Moss Wood 2023 Semillon – Erin Larkin, The Wine Advocate
The 2023 Semillon hails from a gorgeous season in Margaret River. It was long, mild and dry; it never got too hot, and the gentle rains that occurred were few and far between and well timed. Generally, it was regarded as a stellar vintage. We are only just now…
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Moss Wood 2020 Cabernet Sauvignon – Erin Larkin, The Wine Advocate
The 2020 Cabernet Sauvignon is a child of the 2020 season, which was warm, early and low yielding, and the wines from the area have been decidedly structural, lushly fruited and powerful. All in all, they are excellent quality across the board, and this wine here is no exception. Dense…
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Moss Wood Ribbon Vale 2022 Chardonnay – Erin Larkin, The Wine Advocate
The 2022 Ribbon Vale Chardonnay was always going to be like this; a warm year combined with a rich style has produced a wine of characteristic hedonism, with toasted pineapple, apricot square (the sugar dusted ones), yellow daisies, fleshy peach and custard powder. The phenolics that reside on the middle…
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Moss Wood Ribbon Vale 2023 Elsa – Erin Larkin, The Wine Advocate
The 2023 Elsa leads with a supremely elegant nose of white peach and white chocolate, a hint of sandalwood and scraped vanilla pod, dried coriander and poached green apples. In the mouth, the wine is opulent and very ripe, with custard powder and caramel, nashi pears and lemon drops. The…
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Moss Wood Ribbon Vale 2023 Chardonnay – Erin Larkin, The Wine Advocate
The 2023 vintage in Margaret River was mild, long and dry, and the Chardonnays—so far—are looking to be the picture of restraint and finesse. Exciting! So here, we have the 2023 Ribbon Vale Chardonnay that is every bit the 2023 season as I was hoping for. It has notes of…
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Moss Wood Ribbon Vale 2021 Cabernet Sauvignon – Erin Larkin, The Wine Advocate
The 2021 Ribbon Vale Cabernet Sauvignon is light and fresh on the nose; it exudes raspberry pip and strawberry, cassis and bramble, with a sprinkle of garden mint and bay leaf. In the mouth, the wine is a product of the vintage, in that it is light and lacks the…
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Moss Wood Ribbon Vale 2021 Merlot – Erin Larkin, The Wine Advocate
The 2021 Ribbon Vale Merlot leads with its vessel, but the fruit beneath is elegant and red fruited, shaped by fine, gritty tannins. The oak feels a little biscuity in this vintage, but I quite like that the fruit cannot be deterred. In the mouth, there are flavors of red…
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Moss Wood 2021 Cabernet Sauvignon – Erin Larkin, The Wine Advocate
The 2021 Cabernet Sauvignon leads with raspberry and red gravel, cassis, cocoa and tobacco, with layers of red apple and licorice, all of it shaped by warm-biscuit oak. The palate has gentle clarity: the length of flavor is very long, but the intensity of this vintage has been turned down.…
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Moss Wood 2023 Amy’s – Huon Hooke, The Real Review
Deep, bright, youthful purple-red colour in the glass; fresh and youthful violet, blueberry, mulberry aromas, very primary and a tad immature, but delightful. Elegance combined with concentration and lovely ripeness. A fragrant and quite beauteous cabernet blend.
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Moss Wood Ribbon Vale 2022 Cabernet Sauvignon – Huon Hooke, The Real Review
Deep, bright youthful purple-red colour with a lovely cassis, mulberry nose of ideally ripened cabernet fruit. The wine is elegant and full-bodied, with richness and flesh, fruit sweetness at the core and plenty of supple, fine-grained, gently persuasive tannins that are perfectly integrated with the fruit. Delicious drinking right now,…
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