Moss Wood 2001 Cabernet Sauvignon
| Wine Facts | |
|---|---|
| Median Harvest Date | 18th March, 2001 |
| Harvest Ripeness | 13.40° Be |
| Yield | 9.50 t/ha |
| Bottled | 05th August, 2003 |
| Released | 30th June, 2004 |
| Alcohol | 14.50% |
| Vintage Rating | 10/10 |
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Moss Wood 2022 Cabernet Sauvignon – Andrew Caillard, The Vintage Journal
Medium deep crimson. Attractive cassis, truffle, vanilla aromas with hints of mocha/ cedar. Inky deep with fresh blackcurrant vanilla, espresso flavours, fine grainy tannins and well-integrated vanilla/ marzipan notes. Finishes chalky and long with chinotto and aniseed notes. A classic Moss Wood vintage with lovely richness, definition and mineral length….
Moss Wood 2022 Cabernet Sauvignon – Ken Gargett, The Wine Pilot
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Moss Wood 2022 Cabernet Sauvignon – Ray Jordan Wine
This was a very good vintage in Margaret River after the slightly more challenging ’21. This has the refined elegance and prettiness that is the Moss Wood DNA. The colour is quite pale compared to some previous vintages, but don’t be fooled into thinking this is some shrinking violet. Violets,…
Moss Wood 2022 Cabernet Sauvignon – Fergal Gleeson, Great Wine Blog
Moss Wood Cabernet Sauvignon is one of Australia’s most respected, desired and resaleable wines! The 2022 marks Moss Wood Cabernet’s 50th vintage. Another winery might make a brouhaha about that. But if you’ve spoken to Keith and Clare Mugford you’d know they don’t do that sort of thing! They just…
Moss Wood 2022 Cabernet Sauvignon – The Cellar Post
Beautiful definition and purity on the nose that shows fresh cassis, blackberries, and black plum, with cedar, pencil shavings, subtle vanilla and mocha nuances. Medium-full, superb freshness and concentration on the palate, dark fruit with a vibrant streak of purple, excellent oak spice, clove and tobacco, firm tannins and vibrant…
Moss Wood 2022 Cabernet Sauvignon – Gary Walsh, Wine Front
94% Cabernet Sauvignon, 4% Cabernet Franc, 2% Petit Verdot. Here we have a classic Moss Wood Cabernet, and maybe, though don’t mind me, it puts me in mind of the 2001 for richness and presence. It’s a powerhouse Cabernet and classic Moss Wood in terms of intensity and regal carriage….
Moss Wood 2021 Cabernet Sauvignon – Matthew Jukes
I love the 2021 vintage of this Margaret River standard bearer Cab. Made from 95% Cabernet Sauvignon (all Houghton Clone), 4% Cabernet Franc and 1% Petit Verdot from 52-year-old vines, this is as pure, deep and ripe-fruited as any Moss Wood in years gone by and with only 16% new…
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…
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…
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….
Vintage Notes
It's hard to imagine two more different Moss Wood Cabernet Sauvignons than the 2000 and the 2001. The former, the most approachable of them all - supple, almost lush, deep cassis and mulberry flavours with ripe, substantial yet almost gentle tannins. Keith describes it as a "lake of flavour" while "yummy" is another descriptor that springs readily to mind. On the other hand, the 2001 is very much in the mould of the classic years of the greatest Moss Wood's: 1975, 1976, 1980, 1990, 1991, 1995, 1996 and 1999.
One of the best vintages in Margaret River was not without its problems. Early flowering meant that Moss Wood was subjected to the earliest bird damage ever and harvest began about 10 days ahead of schedule. The summer was mild and drier than usual and it proved to be a copybook growing season. There was a hot spell in February - five consecutive days in the high 30's - which sent the grape sugars up. Light rains in the second week of March slowed down ripening to the benefit of the cabernet. Keith was reminded of 1991: there were no highlights during vintage and he had no great expectations at harvest, but once the wine was in the winery it looked very good indeed.
Production Notes
The production of the wine was routine for the team at Moss Wood. For the second vintage, the flash Delta E2 was used to destem the berries without crushing the grapes - to keep tannin extraction to a minimum. After the end of a two year experiment with wild yeast, fermentation was activated by pure yeast culture and took place at the usual warm temperatures - up to 32° Celcius. Each fermentation vat was hand plunged four times a day and the wine was left on skins for between 10 to 14 days after fermentation. As usual, the decision about how long to leave it on skins was made by tasting the wine daily.
After that, it was pressed and placed into barrel (50% new French oak, 50% two year old) for two years with all the pressings included in the finished wine. At the beginning of July 2003, it was racked into tank for assemblage and filtered (but not fined) before being bottled in August 2003 and then rested for a year before release.
Last year, Moss Wood bottled 200 cases of the 2000 Cabernet Sauvignon under screwcap to ensure that the wine is not affected by cork taint. In the newsletter, we commented that we expected that 1500 cases (or half the production) would be under screwcap with the 2001. In fact, 70% of that vintage has been sealed under the Stelvin closure.
The blend for the 2001 Moss Wood Cabernet was cabernet sauvignon (93%), cabernet franc (3%) and petit verdot (4%), which has been standard since 1997. There are such small amounts of cabernet franc and petit verdot at Moss Wood that, if good enough (and they invariably are), go into the wine as they add some pleasing complexity.
Production Manager Ian Bell, is always pushing to make a Cheval Blanc lookalike by putting aside some cabernet franc and the tiny fraction of merlot (0.3%), bunging it into new oak and selling it at an outrageous price. We have, thus far, resisted this temptation.
Tasting Notes
The 2001 Moss Wood Cabernet Sauvignon is arguably the greatest wine yet released from the vineyard. It has a fragrant nose of mulberries, blackberries and violets with a touch of earth and some spicy, cedary notes while the palate is deep, densely flavoured with ripe cassis and mulberry, complexed by chocolate and coffee bean characters. This is a profound, powerful red, opulent and concentrated with impressive weight showing fine, ripe tannins on a long, lingering finish. The oak and densely packed fruit are seamlessly integrated.
Cellaring:
This wine is built for the long haul and, if well cellared, will improve over the next ten years and remain at its peak long after that.