Moss Wood 2011 Semillon

Wine Facts
Harvested: | 24/2/2011 |
Bottled: | 30/6/2011 |
Released: | 16/12/2011 |
Yield: | 11.08 t/ha |
Baume: | 12.80 |
Alcohol: | 13.00% |
Vintage Rating: | 9/10 |
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Tasting Notes
Colour: Medium straw colour, with green tints; bright condition
Nose: Classic young Semillon - fresh but complex combination of lemon rind, apple and fig.
Palate: full bodied and generous, with apple, grapefruit and fig flavours across the middle and a honey-like sweetness at the back, sitting over just a touch of astringency at the back.
Moss Wood 2024 Semillon – Fergal Gleeson, Great Wine Blog
Moss Wood Semillon 2024 has lime and lemongrass flavours with subtle texture and complexity. Flavoursome and fruit driven given the absence of oak in the winemaking. Moss Wood are one of the only winemakers in Margaret River making an age worthy style which they recommend can cellar for up to…
Moss Wood 2024 Semillon – Ray Jordan, Ray Jordan Wine
This is a slightly fuller style than previously. Perhaps a product of the warmer vintage or an indication of a somewhat new direction for the variety. Regardless, it retains the essential linear mouthfeel and intensity of lemon zest and citrus. A crisp zingy acid sustains the long finish—an immediately appealing…
WA Wine Review 2024
Ray Jordan “Moss Wood is a family-owned wine company and a pioneer of the Margaret River region. Planted in 1969, Moss Wood is an important founding estate of Margaret River. Clare and Keith Mugford, as viticulturalists, winemakers and proprietors, have been tending the vineyard and making wine at Moss Wood…
Moss Wood 2023 Semillon – Stuart Knox, The Real Review
Bright lime and lemon colours shine through the glass. Grapefruit, melon and chopped green herb aromatics. The palate has a tension and drive that instantly draws you in. Citrus fruit and hints of leafy greens add complexity whilst that driving acidity ensures it carries very long and crisp to the…
Moss Wood 2023 Semillon – Fergal Gleeson, Great Wine Blog
The Moss Wood 2023 Semillon leads with lemon and Granny Smith flavours. Dig a little deeper for fig and nectarine. It’s a riper and fuller bodied expression than Hunter releases. Still has that underlying chalk, dryness and acid line to keep everything tidy. Always highly pointed by wine critics but…
Moss Wood 2023 Semillon – Ray Jordan, Ray Jordan Wine
Remains one of my favourite Moss Wood wines, and certainly one of my favourite semillons. And this one from the great ’23 vintage is right up there with anything. It seems a more pungent and intense semillon than previous years and probably a result of the vintage which produced such…
Moss Wood 2023 Semillon – Angus Hughson, Wine Pilot.com
Immediately engaging thanks to excellent upfront volume of hay and honeydew melon with touches of lanolin which offer an impressive start. It then delivers a nicely textured and weighty expression with finer acidity than usual, but impresses with sheer power and youthful energy. An excellent vintage for this Margaret River…
Moss Wood 2023 Semillon – Ned Goodwin, jamessuckling.com
This is exceptional semillon, made with a stylistic nod to white Grave as much as fealty to Margaret River’s oath of immaculate ripeness, melded to a saline pop of freshness. Full-weighted, yet light on its feet. Some unresolved CO2 is as effective as the drag of acidity in promoting freshness….
Moss Wood 2023 Semillon – Gary Walsh, The Wine Front
Gee, they’ve turned out an excellent Semillon in 2023. No oak employed here. Ripe green apple, quince, lime leaf, citrus blossom, a little spice and jalapeño. It’s flavoursome, but balanced, with a fine grip, green melon and citrus, arrowroot biscuits, and a bright and long finish offering lime zest and…
Moss Wood 2023 Semillon – Andrew Caillard, Wine Pilot.com – The Vintage Journal
Pale colour. Lifted grassy, lemon curd hint marzipan aromas with hints of aniseed. Attractive lemon curd, tropical fruit marzipan flavours, fine chalky textures, impressive mid-palate volume and well balanced linear fresh acidity. Generous and richly flavoured wine with lovely fruit definition and impact. Delicious to drink now but should keep…
Vintage Notes
We are so very fortunate the story of the run of good vintages continues with the 2011 Semillon. The highlight of the last 4 years is the relative lack of high temperatures and how this has allowed all the white varieties to retain fresh, lifted fruit aromas and yet have the rich generosity that comes with full ripeness. Vintages from the past which provide the best comparison for this type of season are probably 1983, 1995 and 2003.
In 1983, all our varieties produced exciting wines and the Semillon was probably the finest we have made. Harvested on 7th March, it produced a solid 12.35 tonnes per hectare of crop and ripened to 12.3 Baume. The 1995, noted for it’s generous, complex wines, was picked on 23rd of February, yielding a creditable 11.32 tonnes per hectare and a ripeness of 12.8 Baume. Finally, in 2003 the Semillon gave us a 8.74 tonnes per hectare crop, picked on 15th March at 12.9 Baume. The very low yield gave us a wine with great palate concentration but as is often the case, it was relatively restrained on the nose.
Compare these outcomes with the 2011. It was harvested on 24th February, producing a yield of 11.08 tonnes per hectare, at a ripeness of 12.8 Baume. According to the numbers, this latest vintage compares best with 1995 and certainly it does have that wines generous palate but interestingly, it also has the bright fruit notes of 1983 and so probably lies somewhere between the two. Either way, while we are very proud of the consistency of our Semillon wines, we think the 2011 offers a serious challenge to the '83 as our finest ever.
All other aspects of the growing season went well and we had no worries with disease and the bird nets helped keep the silvereyes and crows at bay.
Production Notes
Median Harvest Dates and Ripeness: 24th February, 2011; 12.8 Baume
The fruit was hand harvested and delivered to the winery, where it was de-stemmed, crushed and pressed. The free run and pressings juice fractions were kept separate. The former was settled for 48 hours, the clear juice was racked to its fermentation tank and then some solids, equivalent to 2% of the volume, were blended back in. A pure yeast culture was then added and fermentation proceeded at 17C for 16 days. In the meantime, the pressings were fined and settled and the clear juice was racked and seeded for a separate, pure yeast fermentation.
After a week of settling on their gross lees, the two components were racked and blended to produce the final wine.
The next step was to conduct fining trials and a series of different agents were trialled. After tasting we concluded no treatments were required, other than a bentonite fining for protein stability.
After sterile filtration, the wine was bottled on 30th June, 2011.
Cellaring Notes
Although this is a classic cellaring style, it still has sufficient fleshiness and generosity on the palate to be enjoyed now. However, the fruit depth, acidity and tannin give this vintage all the hallmarks of a classic, aging Semillon. Accordingly, for those who enjoy the mature flavours in wine, we recommend it be cellared for at least 5 years to allow these secondary notes to evolve. This is our minimum recommended cellaring time but for those who have the patience (and the space), we advocate at least 15 years, to ensure the wine is seen with full maturity.