In recent vintages, the Moss Wood Cabernet has regained its position as one of this country’s very best Cabs. Stellar stuff. KEN GARGETT, Wine Pilot
We begin the story of Moss Wood 2021 Cabernet Sauvignon, another of our cooler vintages in the recent mould of 2017 and 2019. The first of the years in this style was 1975 and this has given us pause to reflect. Please forgive us while we indulge in a moment of whimsey. What were we doing nearly 50 years ago? Keith was a Matriculation student at Westminster School in Adelaide. Clare comments she was in Year 10 at North Lake High School in Perth, doing all the stupid things Year 10 girls do. Whatever that means? It was Moss Wood’s third vintage and the style the vineyard would make was not yet clear, but it turned out to be one of our most famous and more on that later... The complexity and depth in wines like the 1975 are what we love and bring the highest praise from the sternest critics but they are the product of cooler years and with those seasons come risks. The mild temperatures responsible for the wide range of fruit aromas that deliver this complexity mean we live on the edge while the grapes ripen slowly and the waiting for the harvest drags on. This is not for the faint-hearted but when Mother Nature smiles on us, it’s always worth the effort. KEITH MUGFORD, Moss Wood
[ON 2021] Cooler and drier conditions in March and April infused perfume, lift, vibrancy and fine tannins in cabernet sauvignon, the star of the reds. WINE COMPANION
Moss Wood Cabernet is of course a wine that needs little introduction. The Mugfords have built such a record for greatness for this wine over their 50 odd years of history that is now firmly imprinted into the annals of Australia's vinous history. Rivalled only perhaps by Dullen's Diana Madeline and Vasse Felix's Tom Cullity this is a wine that speaks wonderful of its place, a precious vineyard on Caves Rd, the 'Champs Elysees' of Margaret River Cabernet. The progress today maybe glacial, as it so often is at the pinnacle, but none the less the Mugfords continue to make tweaks and adjustments and are today producing some of their finest wine in their long history.
History and experience are great tools to draw on in any vintage of course but tapping into Keith's notes on 2021 you can see the incredible value it has. When you have so many decades of vintages from the same piece of dirt you get to learn a thing or two, you get to understand how the sun, rain and winds push and pull the characters of a given year and what moves to make and when. You also get to see into the future, knowing what a wine today well may look like in 15, 20 years’ time.
The comparison Keith draws from 2021 is the 1975 vintage, I wasn't even a twinkle in my father's eye, but the cool conditions that year produced a wine of remarkable elegance, complexity and depth, a wine that stands as one of their most famous bottlings. Similarly in 2021 you might find this year's release showing less with the brash fruit and palpable intensity Margs can be known for, instead the fruit sits tucked in a little behind the structure, waiting for a sleep in the cellar for a decade to emerge in all its glory. Young ripe Cabernet can be fine to drink but truly great Cabernet for me is always about elegance, fine structure and complexity built through time. That's why it's those sleeper vintages that all too often turn out to be the greats down the line.
One drawback from the vintage is volumes, down 15% on average and so there is a little less to go around. Given the number of collectors of this wine it would be wise to get your orders in early for this one, then leave well alone for a decade and likely a lot longer.