Winemaker of the year

Gourmet Traveller Wine

Keith Mugford – Moss Wood, 2005 Finalist – Winemaker of the year Written by Peter Forrestal – Gourmet Traveller Wine, June/July 2005

Experimentation and acquisition have defined the wines, but a keen sense of business has seen the vineyards prosper.

The MBA studies have changed the way that Keith Mugford thinks about what he does as a winemaker and as manager of a small family business. He brings intellectual rigour to his analysis of how recent changes have affected Moss Wood. As their four children grew older, Mugford and his wife, Clare, realised they would need to expand if the family business was to move into the next generation – buying nearby Ribbon Vale vineyard in 2000 was the first step. The family has relocated to Perth and Mugford runs the business from there, helped by a weekly overnight visit to Margaret River in addition to a constant stream of phone conversations.

Mugford believes a change of personnel does not necessarily mean a change of direction. Although the former owners, Bill and Sandra Pannell, have been away from Moss Wood for 20 years, they still influence the ethos of the organisation. Their strong culture of doing things well, established from 1969 to 1984, influences how those at Moss Wood operate today. One way in which the organisation is stronger since Mugford ceased to be hands-on is that the winery now has specifications for each wine, whereas beforehand these were carried around in his head. These requirements are now reviewed annually and debated vigorously by all involved in the winemaking process.

As chief winemaker, Mugford sees himself as both a link to the past and a link to the market. While the wines have been refined in recent years – by re-trellising and soil conservation techniques; by the addition of cabernet franc, petit verdot and a touch of merlot to the cabernet sauvignon; by work on post-fermentation maceration to achieve better tannin balance – Mugford still looks to the 1975-77 cabernets as benchmarks for the style. He thinks about each new vintage in terms of how it relates to previous harvests. As a messenger to the market, he is able to inform current directions in light of customer expectations. From his work in marketing, he feels he now has a better overview than was possible when he was in the winery before.

Problems with random oxidation in the Moss Wood chardonnays of the 1990s has seen expermentation with increased levels of fruit exposure, which has begun to have an impact on the 2003/2004 varieties. This, plus earlier picking, has altered the fruit profile of these wines from ripe peach and melon to white peach and nectarine, giving the wines fresher, natural acidity, greater tightness, a more steely backbone and reduced alcohol.

The big challenge following the purchase of Ribbon Vale vineyard has been to assimilate its wines into the Moss Wood portfolio. In the past five years, the vineyard has been re-trellised to improve shoot positioning and fruit exposure and to help manage yields. The impact of this work is evident in the 2002/2003 Ribbon Vale reds, which show a gradual harnessing of the natural tannins of the vineyard so that the cabernet merlot and merlot show power and concentration of flavour, with more restraint and better balance. The semillon sauvignon blanc from the same vineyard has quickly estalished itself as a top blend of its kind from Margaret River.

So far, all the Moss Wood wines have come from single vineyards: the four estate varietals, those from Ribbon Vale, the Lefroy Brook Vineyard at Pemberton (owned by Patrick and Barbara Holt) and the Glenmore Vineyard in Yallingup (owned and managed by Moss Wood winemaker Ian Bell). The improvement in the Ribbon Vale reds has left a gap for an entry-level red, which has been filled by Amy’s Blend – a blend of cabernets.

The 2001 Cabernet Sauvignon is arguably the best wine produced from the estate and the epitome of the variety from Margaret River. Powerful, opulent and complex, it stands as a beacon of what has been achieved at Moss Wood by Keith Mugford and a team dedicated to doing the best they can with an exceptional site, of which they are temporary guardians.

“Keith has worked hard to polish the jewel he acquired in Moss Wood, remaining true to the estate concept, never wavering from the quality path, and at the same time extending and enhancing the portfolio” – HUON HOOKE