Moss Wood Ribbon Vale 2018 Merlot

Wine Facts
Median Harvest Date2018 Ribbon Vale Merlot – 18th March, 2018
2018 Ribbon Vale Cabernet Franc – 16th March, 2018
Mean Harvest Ripeness2018 Ribbon Vale Merlot – 13.3⁰ Be
2018 Ribbon Vale Cabernet Franc – 13.1⁰ Be
Yield2018 Ribbon Vale Merlot – 7.38 t/ha
2018 Ribbon Vale Cabernet Franc – 6.55 t/ha
Ripening Time from Flowering to Harvest2018 Ribbon Vale Merlot – 122 days
2018 Ribbon Vale Cabernet Franc – 119 days
Bottled10th & 11th August, 2020.
Released10th November, 2020
Alcohol14%

Wine Facts

  • Median Harvest Date

    2018 Ribbon Vale Merlot – 18th March, 2018
    2018 Ribbon Vale Cabernet Franc – 16th March, 2018

  • Mean Harvest Ripeness

    2018 Ribbon Vale Merlot – 13.3⁰ Be
    2018 Ribbon Vale Cabernet Franc – 13.1⁰ Be

  • Yield

    2018 Ribbon Vale Merlot – 7.38 t/ha
    2018 Ribbon Vale Cabernet Franc – 6.55 t/ha

  • Ripening Time from Flowering to Harvest

    2018 Ribbon Vale Merlot – 122 days
    2018 Ribbon Vale Cabernet Franc – 119 days

  • Bottled

    10th & 11th August, 2020

  • Released

    9th November, 2020

  • Alcohol

    14%

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 nutmeg, clove, anise and cinnamon.…

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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% of Cabernet Sauvignon and 7%…

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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 it up a notch, with…

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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 speaks of Margaret River so…

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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 earth and raspberry, cocoa and…

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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 and juicy red berries, mulberry,…

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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 to full bodied wine that…

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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 are getting a serious red…

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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 more serious proposition than many.…

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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 since 1984 and 1979, respectively.…

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Moss Wood Ribbon Vale 2021 Merlot – Huon Hooke, The Real Review

Deep-ish red-purple colour, bright and fresh; the bouquet is briary, peaty, cedar and savoury forest-floor complexities overlying dark-berry/cassis/mulberry fruit, the palate elegant and intense with lovely depth of flavour and fine, caressing tannins that run the full length of the palate. Lovely wine indeed, and a triumph for a straight merlot. February, 2024    

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Moss Wood Ribbon Vale 2020 Merlot – Ray Jordan, Ray Jordan Wine

When Australia’s finest merlots are discussed this one must be in the mix. Recent vintages have been stunning, and I have to say this one, which combines the concentrated intensity of the small 2020 vintage with such supreme elegance, is as good as any released and that includes the 2018. In fact, stylistically, I think…

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Moss Wood Ribbon Vale 2021 Merlot – Gary Walsh, The Wine Front

Plum, cherry, new leather, choc-hazelnut, tobacco and black olive, a honey/miny/floral top note. It’s medium-bodied, savoury, some tobacco and savoury stuff, a liquorice and nougat flavour, silty and grainy tannin, quite some flesh on its bones, baked raspberry, plenty of chew and succulence with a grainy and saline finish of excellent length. Really like this.…

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Moss Wood Ribbon Vale 2021 Merlot – Angus Hughson, Wine Pilot.com

The cool and challenging vintage is on show in this 2021 Merlot. It delivers subtle and pretty aromas of graphite, gravel and just ripened blackcurrant topped by a generous serve of herbs and cedar. Lightly framed and acid driven, fleshy cassis flavours are then backed by heavyset, firm edged tannins edging out the fruit. Give…

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Moss Wood Ribbon Vale 2021 Merlot – Ned Goodwin, jamessuckling.com

Mid-weighted merlot, reflective of a cooler vintage. Riffs on dried tobacco, mint and other strewn garden herb shuffling amidst juicy red cherry notes, while segueing to an astringent, sappy finish. This feels almost delicate in a Moss Wood context, suggestive of something from the Loire. It should reward mid-term cellaring. Good drinking. Drink or hold.…

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Vintage Conditions

The tale of the 2017/18 growing season is delightfully simple.  Essentially, benign conditions prevailed nearly all the way such that even Hanrahan wouldn’t have complained!

Rainfall during calendar year 2017 was above average with 1117mm, so there was plenty of moisture in the soil but with a solid 267mm falling during the growing season, the vines were never in danger of being stressed.

During the flowering period for the Cabernet varieties at Ribbon Vale, from 7th November to 12th December, there were only 3 days when the temperature dropped below 8°C, so the only interruptions were caused by rain.  Hanrahan might have grumbled with his mates in the congregation when we had showers or drizzle on 14 days and received a total of 50mm of rain, which gave us lighter bunches and commensurately lower yields, the only serious disappointment of the vintage.  Cabernet Franc cropped at 6.55 tonnes per hectare, down 17% and Merlot, doing its best to save the team, cropped at 7.38 tonnes per hectare, down only 5%.

At this point, however, even he would stop complaining.

Temperatures during summer and autumn were very enjoyable for those of us working in the vineyard.  An absence of sustained hot weather made outdoor activities easy, although the nights were fresh and didn’t provide too many balmy evenings for holiday makers.  Apart from one hot day on 14th January when the mercury topped out at 39.1°C, there were very few days when the temperature exceeded 33°C, so the vines were very comfortable indeed.

Given these mild conditions, it’s no surprise the rate of ripening was a bit leisurely.  It’s almost as if the vines knew they had plenty of time to enjoy good conditions and were determined to do so.  Cabernet Franc used its average 119 days to proceed from flowering to ripeness but Merlot was more casual, taking 3 more days than usual at 122.

This last point is interesting and in all but the warmest years can certainly challenge us.  As we proceed into autumn and the average temperature drops accordingly, we often find Ribbon Vale ripening noticeably slower than Moss Wood, a product of its elevated, south-facing location.  It gets quite chilly out there, especially overnight, and the vines take longer to warm up and get moving in the morning.  We have to be patient and keep an eye on the weather and are happy to leave the fruit out as long as we can, but we always get a bit touchy if rain is looming.  We need to be ready to jump in at late notice and this is how it was in 2018.  The last pick was on 9th April and over the next 2 weeks, 50mm of rain fell.  We couldn’t have left things any longer but the quality was worth the wait.

We were successful in deterring the birds and our fungicide program ensured we had no disease, so each variety produced grapes in excellent condition and which also means the pressure goes on in the winery because we don’t want to spoil all that good work.

 

Production Notes

Merlot was placed in small, closed tanks for primary fermentation because we apply a slightly different technique.  Initially, we chill the juice down to around 10°C and allow some extraction of colour without the presence of alcohol.  It’s a technique we use on Pinot Noir but in open tanks.  After 48 hours, we seed for primary fermentation with multiple yeast strains and pump the tanks over 3 times per day for extraction.  We choose this over hand plunging in open tanks because, for reasons that are not entirely clear, we get better colour, in particular.  After 16 days on skins each batch was pressed to stainless steel tank for malolactic fermentation. The time in the fermenter was one or two days less than we normally expect and is an indication of how well balanced the tannins are in the 2018 wines.

For each variety the steps post-MLF were the same – adjusted and racked to 228 litre French oak barrels.

In December 2019, the final blends were assembled after tasting trials.

The Merlot needed just a tiny lift with 5% Cabernet Franc.  It had 15% new barrels.

The blended wines were returned to barrel until August 2020 when they were racked to stainless steel and fining trials were carried out.  We mentioned above the excellent tannin balance in the 2018 vintage and so, as expected, no finings were necessary.  Both wines were then sterile filtered and bottled on 10th and 11th August.

Tasting Notes

Colour and condition

Medium to deep brick red; bright condition.

Nose

Distinctly aromatic, with the full range of Merlot’s red and black fruits.  Lots of blackberry, blueberry, plum and cherry, brightened by musk stick confectionery fragrance.  Underneath lie earthy complexity of tarry notes, plus toasty oak and leather.

Palate

The theme of generous dark fruit follows through on the palate, where the front and middle are immediately filled with blackcurrant, mulberry and licorice.  This sits over a full body and typically firm Merlot tannin structure but the combination is supple and well balanced, something we don’t often see in the young Ribbon Vale Merlots.  The finish shows some tarriness and there is also some toasty oak evident.

 

Cellaring

There is no doubt the fruit concentration and complexity of the 2018 Merlot will see it cellar for several decades, enhancing the wine with tar and leather complexities.  It will need at least a decade to show the first signs of this and will become more complete with each year that passes after that.  We suspect the challenge for many will be to resist its delicious early appeal but that’s OK, we’re happy for our wines to be enjoyed at any age.