Nose
On the nose it is very complex. The primary fruit aromas are the typically Moss Wood redcurrants and mulberries but with additional pretty aromas like cherry and red jubes. These lively aromas seem to be the product of the mild growing season. There are also notes of coffee beans and chocolate and an earthy or olive-like note. The oak is soft and well balanced, giving a toasty background.
Palate
On the palate, there are ripe redcurrant fruit flavours which are sweet and mouth filling, as well as some complex cassis and dark plum characters. The texture is soft and silky but the structure is tight, with both acid and tannin providing balance and length. On the finish, the oak flavours add length and the tannins are firm but not aggressive.
Growing Conditions
After two very challenging vintages in 1997 and 1998, the Moss Wood team were hoping for an easier time with the 1999 harvest. Fortunately, the gods were smiling on us because we had a nearly perfect season. There were no hail or disease problems, the winds remained calm and rain fell at all the right times. The birds were kept at bay by the nets and so with all these things in our favour yields were spot on average.
Temperatures during the growing season were generally mild and so all varieties ripened gradually and showed good fruit characters. Indeed, 1999 is one of those rare vintages where, across the range, we were happy with our wines and no one variety stood out as the highlight for the vintage.
The mild season began to cause us some concern by mid-March because the cabernet sauvignon was maturing very slowly and it seemed that it might not ripen fully before the end of April. As there is always a threat of rain by that time of the year, we began to look at the weather forecasts with increasing interest. The first cabernet grapes were picked during the last week of March although they had still not reached our preferred ripeness of 13° Beaume. We therefore stopped harvesting in the hope that some of the forecast warm weather might help our cause. The first two weeks of April were delightful, with clear sunny days and daily maximums in the mid-twenties ensuring that 1999 ripened fully, to be one of the ‘great cool years’, reminiscent of 1979 and 1990.
Bottling
11/8/2001
Winemaking
In the winery, the production technique was very much in our traditional mode. The fruit was crushed, de-stemmed and pumped into open fermentors. During fermentation, the tanks were hand plunged four times per day, the temperatures allowed to rise to 32°C and at the end, each ferment was pumped over once to reduce hydrogen sulphide.
At this point it is worth noting that, like all the other Moss Wood wines from the 1999 and 2000 vintages, the cabernet sauvignon was fermented with wild, not selected or pure, yeast strains. This is a departure from our traditional technique and one that was applied to enhance the texture and complexity of flavour of the wine. From a quality point of view, we were happy with the results and believe that the spontaneous fermentation did improve the wine. However, the improvement was only small and in our opinion, too small a trade off for the enormous associated risk. Accordingly, we discontinued the process after the 2000 vintage.
As each batch completed its fermentation, the wine was tasted on a daily basis to decide when to press. The time on skins varied from batch to batch but averaged out at around 12 days. After pressing, the wine is transferred to oak barrels for malolactic fermentation. It is then racked, analysed, adjusted and returned to oak. As usual, all barrels are 228 litre French Allier oak, with a medium toast – 50% were new.
The wine spent two years in barrel, after which it was racked to stainless steel tanks and prepared for bottling.
Aging
Cabernet Sauvignon is 10 years although we recommend a cellaring time of 15-25 years.
Appearance
Deep brick red colour.
