Moss Wood Ribbon Vale 2020 Elsa

Wine Facts
Median Harvest Date15/02/2020
Harvest Ripeness12.8 °Be
Yield8.01 t/ha
Day Elapsed between Flowering and Harvest88 days
Bottled15/01/2021
Released29/10/2021
Alcohol14.0%
Wine Facts
Median Harvest Date15/02/2020
Harvest Ripeness12.8 °Be
Yield8.01 t/ha
Day Elapsed between Flowering and Harvest88 days
Bottled15/01/2021
Released29/10/2021
Alcohol14.0%

Moss Wood Ribbon Vale 2020 Elsa – Andrew Caillard, Wine Pilot.com – The Vintage Journal

Pale colour. Fresh pineapple, stonefruit, honey aromas with herb garden, hint of grassy notes. Attractive minerally wine with fresh tropical fruit, peach, lemon glacé flavours, fine loose knit chalky textures and fresh long crisp acidity. A touch of aniseed at the finish. Delicious early drinking “classic white” style. 90% Sauvignon Blanc 10% Semillon.

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Moss Wood Ribbon Vale 2020 Elsa – James Halliday, The Weekend Australian Magazine

A 90/10% blend of sauvignon blanc and semillon, barrel fermented and matured for 9 months in French barriques. The move away from the clear juice to slightly cloudy has moved this into big boy’s territory, full-bodied if you will, but none the worse for that. 14% alc, screw cap  95 points, drink to 2027 Printed…

Read more

Moss Wood Ribbon Vale 2020 Elsa – Fergal Gleeson, Greatwineblog

Moss Wood have just released 2020 Elsa, a sophisticated Sauvignon Blanc. Moss Wood’s first release of Elsa was the 2019 with the aim of making more complex Sauv Blanc. Winemaking techniques support this through oak barrel fermentation and ageing and more use of solids to build flavours. 10% Semillon also add palate weight. It’s miles…

Read more

Moss Wood Ribbon Vale 2020 Elsa – Ken Gargett, Wine Pilot

A wine like this is always a tough one to review. As ever, it must be done as objectively as possible on the undoubted merits of the wine and this is a wine that will have many supporters. That said, this is a love-it-or-hate-it wine – all these ‘worked’ Savvies are. After pressing, the must is…

Read more

Moss Wood Ribbon Vale 2020 Elsa – Angus Hughson, Wine Pilot

Some of my compatriots in the wine writing game are not the biggest fans of full worked Sauvignon Blanc, but I am not one of them. Actually I think these wines can be some of the best white wines in the world when done right, as can be seen in the best white wines from…

Read more

Moss Wood Ribbon Vale 2020 Elsa – Bob Campbell, The Real Review

Sauvignon Blanc with 10% Semillon, fermented and matured for nine months in oak. Rich, weighty wine with guava, passion fruit, lemongrass and subtle, spicy oak flavours supported by fine tannins and fresh acidity. A singular Sauvignon. Drink 2021-2025 Published December 2021    

Read more

Moss Wood Ribbon Vale 2020 Elsa – Ray Jordan, The West Australian Wine Guide 2022

This is a modern old-world take on sauvignon blanc. There’s multiple yeast use in the fermentation and a little oak adding complexity and adding to the interest on the palate. It has about 10 months in oak before bottling, with just a light fining. It’s atypical of Aussie savvies and great example of what can…

Read more

Moss Wood Ribbon Vale 2020 Elsa – Andrew Caillard, Wine Pilot.com – The Vintage Journal

Pale colour. Fresh pineapple, stonefruit, honey aromas with herb garden, hint of grassy notes. Attractive minerally wine with fresh tropical fruit, peach, lemon glacé flavours, fine loose knit chalky textures and fresh long crisp acidity. A touch of aniseed at the finish. Delicious early drinking “classic white” style. 90% Sauvignon Blanc 10% Semillon.

Read more

Moss Wood Ribbon Vale 2020 Elsa – James Halliday, The Weekend Australian Magazine

A 90/10% blend of sauvignon blanc and semillon, barrel fermented and matured for 9 months in French barriques. The move away from the clear juice to slightly cloudy has moved this into big boy’s territory, full-bodied if you will, but none the worse for that. 14% alc, screw cap  95 points, drink to 2027 Printed…

Read more

Moss Wood Ribbon Vale 2020 Elsa – Fergal Gleeson, Greatwineblog

Moss Wood have just released 2020 Elsa, a sophisticated Sauvignon Blanc. Moss Wood’s first release of Elsa was the 2019 with the aim of making more complex Sauv Blanc. Winemaking techniques support this through oak barrel fermentation and ageing and more use of solids to build flavours. 10% Semillon also add palate weight. It’s miles…

Read more

Moss Wood Ribbon Vale 2020 Elsa – Ken Gargett, Wine Pilot

A wine like this is always a tough one to review. As ever, it must be done as objectively as possible on the undoubted merits of the wine and this is a wine that will have many supporters. That said, this is a love-it-or-hate-it wine – all these ‘worked’ Savvies are. After pressing, the must is…

Read more

Moss Wood Ribbon Vale 2020 Elsa – Angus Hughson, Wine Pilot

Some of my compatriots in the wine writing game are not the biggest fans of full worked Sauvignon Blanc, but I am not one of them. Actually I think these wines can be some of the best white wines in the world when done right, as can be seen in the best white wines from…

Read more

Moss Wood Ribbon Vale 2020 Elsa – Bob Campbell, The Real Review

Sauvignon Blanc with 10% Semillon, fermented and matured for nine months in oak. Rich, weighty wine with guava, passion fruit, lemongrass and subtle, spicy oak flavours supported by fine tannins and fresh acidity. A singular Sauvignon. Drink 2021-2025 Published December 2021    

Read more

Moss Wood Ribbon Vale 2020 Elsa – Ray Jordan, The West Australian Wine Guide 2022

This is a modern old-world take on sauvignon blanc. There’s multiple yeast use in the fermentation and a little oak adding complexity and adding to the interest on the palate. It has about 10 months in oak before bottling, with just a light fining. It’s atypical of Aussie savvies and great example of what can…

Read more

VINTAGE NOTES

 

After the challenges of the 2018-19 growing season, the story of 2019-20 is one of delightful simplicity.  It is true that rainfall in calendar year 2019 was a little on the low side, with 779mm rain compared with our average of 1000mm but that was still plenty for the vines.

Sauvignon Blanc flowered slightly early on 15th November in near-perfect conditions.  There were only a few odd showers of rain and temperatures were nice and warm.  Indeed, across the entire growing season, we averaged 20.1°C, which is just about perfect for grape ripening.  We had no disease issues and although the birds were a bit hungry, we kept them at bay with the nets.  Sauvignon Blanc sailed through to full ripeness of 12.8° Baume 12 days ahead of average on 15th February.

Surely even the grumpiest farmer couldn’t complain?

Well, yes, we can - the trick was in the yield.  We knew as we filled the bins in the vineyard the crop was lighter than we’d hoped and sure enough, once we started weighing it at the winery it was clear things were well down.  Sauvignon Blanc, normally very reliable was reduced by an irritating 25% to 8.01 tonnes per hectare.  For the explanation, we have to go all the way back to spring, October 24th, in fact, when a very solid hailstorm in the wee small hours gave Wilyabrup a fair belting.  Such is life.

PRODUCTION NOTES

 

Since our change to the new style for the “Elsa” with the 2019 vintage, we have plenty of fun with Sauvignon Blanc in the winery.  The new technique allows us to use our imagination and explore the complex end of winemaking.

Oh, and because we’re Moss Wood and such big fans of Semillon, we like to have some of that in the blend, 10% in the 2020 wine.

It adds complexity to the nose and depth to the palate, even at this small percentage.  Also, in a departure from our “normal” Semillon production, in the Elsa it gets all the same fancy techniques that we apply to the Sauvignon Blanc.

After sorting and pressing, the must is settled for 48 hours in stainless steel then the clear juice is racked to a second tank to commence fermentation.  Where we once fermented crystal clear Sauvignon Blanc, now we leave it very slightly cloudy, seeking some lightly caramel notes from the solids.  Multiple yeast strains are then introduced for primary fermentation and these add further nuances to both the nose and the palate.

Once the ferment has reached the halfway mark, the juice is then racked to French oak barriques of which 6% were new.  We are not looking for strong oak notes in this wine but certainly want the benefits of the improved palate weight from fermentation in small oak, as well as the evolution of the yeasty, bready notes as the wine ages on lees.

After primary fermentation we encouraged the secondary fermentation, something that can be challenging for the very temperature-sensitive malolactic bacteria when the winery begins to cool off as autumn sets in.  Patience is a virtue and by the end of June it was finally complete.  If visitors to Moss Wood ever wonder why there are rows of barrels sitting outside on a sunny day in May, the answer is simple.  We need every bit of warmth we can find to keep the Sauvignon Blanc secondary fermentation going.

Once this was finished, the wine was racked to stainless steel, blended and adjusted for sulphur dioxide then returned to barrel, where it stayed for a total of 9 months.  On 5th January 2021 it was racked and blended in stainless steel, fined with bentonite for protein stability and then sterile filtered and bottled on 15th January.

Tasting Notes

Colour and condition:

Light to medium straw hue; bright condition.

Nose:

Lifted scents of lychee, gooseberry and passionfruit, with caramel and a spiciness, reminiscent of nutmeg, with freshly baked pastry.  In the background is a touch of toasty oak..

Palate:

The initial impression follows the nose with generous caramel and lychee flavours sitting over full body and lively acidity, with leafy notes at the end.  There is some tannin but the finish is clean, courtesy of the concentration and good length of flavour.

Cellaring:

From a relatively small crop and with good concentration, there is no doubt the wine will cellar well.  The lively fruit notes will form the major part of the wine for at least 5 years but as it approaches 10 years of age, the secondary notes should start to play a role.  Therefore, for those wanting to see some aging, we suggest a minimum of 10 years cellaring.