Nose
An absolutely classic Semillon combination of green apples and figs but with the added complexity of stewed pears and cinnamon. As always, there’s a touch of earthiness suggesting barrel aging but this is definitely not the case.
Palate
In the mouth there is a rich mouthfeel, not always a feature in young Semillons. The fig and pear fruit flavours combine with full body to smooth out the acidity and tannins, so necessary for cellaring but this year sitting nicely in the background. The net result is good length and drinkability.
Growing Conditions
By virtue of its maritime climate, Margaret River has fairly consistent conditions from one year to the next. However, if we taste a range of vintages, it’s possible to see they are not exactly the same and we get small variations in style and fruit intensity. Generally speaking, we prefer warmer conditions because in that same lineup of vintages, it’s almost certain the hotter years will look the best. The easiest way to illustrate this is to taste each of the wines we made in the 2006 and 2007 years and we’d be London to a brick the latter would be preferred.
Looking at the white varieties, this is almost counter intuitive, because our region is not considered cold. Therefore, Chardonnay, Semillon and Sauvignon Blanc might be expected to show their brightest and most delicate characters in cooler years. Nevertheless, the fact is they all look a bit on the green side unless we’ve had a warmer summer. Our best guess is the general lack of extreme heat is the key and is one of the reasons why we log the temperatures above 33°C as a guide to likely fruit ripeness.
Considering all the above, readers won’t be surprised to learn that after our relatively cool and wet 2016/17 growing season, we were pleased to enjoy a more normal year in 2017/18. For an unirrigated vineyard like Moss Wood, we could hardly have asked for better. Rainfall of 1117mm was up for the year by 10%, providing plenty of soil moisture for the vines to cope with the yield of 8.90 tonnes/hectare. This was down slightly (12%) and probably the result of a day of rain and cool temperatures right at the end of flowering.
Glorious conditions were the order of the day during the period from flowering to harvest. In the end, the Semillon racked up 1140 hours between 18 and 28°C, well above our desired minimum of 1050, plenty of sunlight and warmth to keep them photosynthesizing and ripening the crop. There was very little in the way of extreme heat, with only 13 hours above 33°C and in the context mentioned above, we had to pick the fruit a little riper than average to get full flavour. In 2018 we picked at 14.1° Baume, notably higher than the average of 12.7°. The actual harvest date was only 4 days later than average on 14th March but this gave a total of 119 days from flowering to harvest, 11 days longer than normal, confirming the need for more time on the vine in cooler years.
