Moss Wood Winery

Western Australia, South West Australia

Ribbon vale Sauvignon Blanc Semillon

$ AUD

Release Price

Drink Window

12.5%

ABV

pH

TA

RS

Nose

The nose is bright and fresh, with lifted gooseberry and grassy notes from the Sauvignon Blanc, supported by lemon shortbread, lemon sherbet, green apples and fig notes of the Semillon.

Palate

On the palate, the wine is medium bodied but has a rich texture with almost creamy feel, enhanced by flavours of lemon shortbread, green apple and fig fruit balancing a refreshing, crisp acidity and clean finish with no phenolics.

Growing Conditions

Despite the much-discussed run of good vintages in the Margaret River region, behind the scenes, we have to admit things have been a bit more challenging than they might seem. The 2016 is a good case in point. On the surface, calendar year 2015 was good to us, with largely benign conditions. Rainfall was within a few millimetres of our long term average of 988 and the weather during flowering was reliable with only a few rainy days. In addition, we had good January rainfall, when 115mm fell, something very welcome in unirrigated vineyards like Moss Wood and Ribbon Vale. We even had a further top up in February, when a very rare 20mm were recorded. Even though late rain can cause problems with rot, our spray program prevented any outbreak. The birds were kept out of the vineyard with good redgum blossom and application of our nets, so when picking got under way with Sauvignon Blanc on 10th February, we were anticipating good yields. Unfortunately, things didn’t quite turn out as we’d hoped. Sauvignon Blanc yield was down 39% to 6.47 tonnes per hectare and Semillon was down a whopping 51%, to 4.91. To try and understand the cause, amongst other things we revisited the thermometer record. It turned out things hadn’t been quite as benign as we thought. It revealed we’d had 10 nights during the flowering period where the temperature dropped below 80C. Under those cold conditions, the vines tend to produce inconsistent, straggly, lightweight bunches. No wonder crops were small. In the end though, the most important thing is quality and that was exceptional. The summer was consistently mild to warm and we had no temperatures over 400C. Ripening was slow and steady, with no heat stress. No surprise, given the low crops, it was an early vintage, at least to begin with. Sauvignon Blanc was picked on 10th February, 2 weeks earlier than average, at a ripeness of 11.50 Baume. After that, autumn took hold quite quickly, so by the time we came to take the Semillon, 2 days later than average on 16th March, it had taken 123 days to go from flowering to harvest, 11 days longer than average. Despite having been on the vines for significantly longer, it had only just reached its preferred ripeness of 13.20 Baume.

Bottling

27th June, 2016.

Winemaking

Each variety was picked to make a specific contribution to the blend. Sauvignon Blanc was harvested at around 11.5% alcohol equivalent, where it has its brightest, freshest notes. On the other hand, Semillon was picked at around 13.5% alcohol equivalent, so it can contribute richness and complexity. Both components were then de-stemmed, pressed, cold settled and then co-fermented with selected yeast strains, in 225 litre French oak barrels. There are no new barrels because we don’t want new wood characters. Rather, we want to improve the mouthfeel and texture. Once fermentations were completed, the two varieties were blended and aged in barrels for a further 2 months. The finished wine was then racked, fined then sterile filtered and bottled.