Moss Wood Ribbon Vale 2013 Merlot
Wine Facts
| Median Harvest: | Merlot – 12/03/2013 Cabernet Franc – 04/03/013 |
| Bottled: | 01/10/2015 |
| Released: | 18/11/2015 |
| Yield: | Merlot – 5.46 t/ha Cabernet Franc – 5.79 t/ha |
| Baume: | Merlot – 12.6⁰ Be Cabernet Franc – 13.2⁰ Be |
| Alcohol: | 13.5% |
| Vintage Rating: | 10/10 |
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Tasting Notes
This wine has deep brick red colour and is in bright condition.
The nose is a bright expression of Merlot fruit, combining blackcurrant, mulberry and toffee apple. It is also quite complex, with plenty of leather and tar in the background.
A similar theme shows on the palate, with mouth-filling red and black fruits, sitting over full body and firm tannin. There is good length and the tannins are well balanced, with an astringency that gives a bituminous finish but doesn’t leave the mouth dry or gritty.
Moss Wood Ribbon Vale 2022 Merlot – Erin Larkin, The Wine Advocate
The 2022 Ribbon Vale Merlot is from a warm, dry and early vintage; the confluence of these climatic conditions has come together as a superb red wine vintage in the region. Aromatically, the wine leads with redcurrant and pomegranate molasses, raw cocoa and tapenade. On the spice register, we see…
Moss Wood Ribbon Vale 2022 Merlot – Ken Gargett, Wine Pilot
I suspect this wine holds a Moss Wood record for the shortest vintage weather report they have ever issued – “Mother Nature was in a very benign frame of mind”. Of course, they didn’t leave it at that, but it is a great start. In addition to the Merlot, 7%…
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…
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…
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…
Moss Wood Ribbon Vale 2022 Merlot – Wine Worth Writing About – A serious Aussie Merlot!
Deep ruby, like a black cherry, and a lifting nose of sweet leafy potpourri, honeybush tea, dried Iranian fig, raspberry gums, baked plum, blackcurrant jubes, pickled walnut, dried thyme, pencil shavings, forest floor and cedar. In the mouth it’s structured, vivacious, dry and acutely focused with a core of bright…
Moss Wood Ribbon Vale 2022 Merlot – Fergal Gleeson, Great Wine Blog
If you’re only going to drink one Australian Merlot in the year? Moss Wood Merlot 2022 is an excellent candidate! Forget the guy from Sideways! Merlot can be a serious wine. And Moss Wood make one of Australia’s best. Flavours of blackberry, blueberry, violets, milk chocolate sit inside a medium…
Moss Wood Ribbon Vale 2022 Merlot – Ray Jordan, Ray Jordan Wine
A lot of work was put into rejuvenating this vineyard when Moss Wood acquired it, and it has certainly paid off handsomely with merlot in particular. It’s now recognised as one of Australia’s consistently best. This is another cracker combining the suppleness of the fruit with power and poise. You…
Moss Wood Ribbon Vale 2021 Merlot – Jane Faulkner – James Halliday, The Wine Companion
Deep, intense and richly flavoured, this is no tutti-frutti merlot. The fruit comes encased in earthy, almost peaty flavours with baking spices and fresh herbs. Full bodied with no shortage of oak and tannins – somewhat drying on the finish. But all things considered, this is very good and a…
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…
Vintage Notes
We had a generally excellent growing season and yet we began the 2013 vintage with a degree of fear and trepidation. This was not because of any quality concerns but rather, we’d had a monumental hail storm on 30th November, 2012, the likes of which we hadn’t seen since 1996 and we were worried just how small our yields were going to be. The thing is, it is possible to see the damage but we don’t know the true extent until we actually start picking.
The first of the Ribbon Vale reds to come off was the Cabernet Franc on 4th March and its yield was down by 30%, which wasn’t as bad as expected. When we started Merlot 8 days later, we hoped for the same and yes, we were in luck. That left Cabernet Sauvignon, which started on 27th March and sadly our hopes were dashed - its yield was down by just over 50%. Such is life in agriculture. What did matter was quality and that was very encouraging.
Despite the stormy conditions outlined above, the season was warm to hot, especially at the end of December where we had one day with a maximum of 40⁰C, the hottest day for the summer. January temperatures eased but things warmed again at the beginning of February, although not quite as hot as December. March delivered typical autumn weather, so all the varieties moved gently to full maturity, especially Cabernet Sauvignon.
Production Notes
Cabernet Franc was hand-picked and destemmed into a small, open tank, seeded with a pure yeast culture and allowed to ferment at up to 30⁰C and hand plunged 3 times per day. After 13 days it was pressed to stainless steel, underwent malolactic fermentation and was finally racked to barrel on 13th April, 2013. The casks were all 228 litre French oak.
Merlot was hand-picked and destemmed into static fermenters, seeded with pure yeast culture and allowed to ferment up to 30⁰C and were pumped over 3 times per day. Skin contact time was 16 days, after which the wine was pressed to stainless steel. Malolactic fermentation was carried out by selected bacteria and after MLF the wine was racked to 228 litre French oak barrels on 23rd April, 2013.
The Merlot blend was made up on 3rd March, 2015 and consisted of 92% Merlot and 8% Cabernet Franc. It was then returned to barrel where it stayed until 14th September 2015 when, after 30 months aging, it was racked to stainless steel. Fining trials were carried out but none improved the wine, so it was left unfined and then sterile filtered and bottled on 1st October, 2015.
The Merlot blend was made up on 3rd March, 2015 and consisted of 92% Merlot and 8% Cabernet Franc. It was then returned to barrel where it stayed until 14th September 2015 when, after 30 months aging, it was racked to stainless steel. Fining trials were carried out but none improved the wine, so it was left unfined and then sterile filtered and bottled on 1st October, 2015.
Cellaring Notes
The brightness and balance mean this wine lends itself to early drinking and is really quite enjoyable now. However, it will certainly age well and we recommend it for at least 20 years cellaring. This will allow it to build its secondary notes of leather and tar, enhancing and rounding the palate with softer tannins.