Nose
Fresh fruit aromas of grapefruit, apple and fig. There are also strong notes of pear and musk which is unusual in Moss Wood Semillon and seems to be a feature of 2010. Although we are not completely certain, we believe this is the result of a predominance of distinctly pink berries, as described above. This is a feature of the variety and they occur every year but for reasons about which we are unsure, they were plentiful in 2010. This distinctiveness also applies to the flavours and these grapes have almost a muscatelike floral character. This complexity is further enhanced by background notes of caramel and lanolin.
Palate
This is classic Moss Wood Semillon, combining crisp acidity with full body and a slight firmness of tannin on the finish. The mid-palate has ripe apple, fig and pear flavours giving a generous, almost sweet feel, despite the fact the wine is completely dry.
Growing Conditions
Our last two vintages have been notable for the very even weather conditions, where extreme heat has been avoided but the days have been sufficiently warm to promote even ripening. The vines responded accordingly, with good shoot growth early in the season, a good fruit set during flowering and then retention of excellent varietal aromas during ripening. The even nature of the season can be seen in the production data. The median harvest date for the Semillon is 13th March but this year, it was slightly early, being the 7th. This is also confirmed by the time taken to go from lowering to harvest, where, at 97 days, the season was 8 days ahead of the average. The affect of the season was probably also enhanced by a slightly below average crop. The long term mean for the Semillon is 10.96 tonnes per hectare, whereas 2010 was down by a not insignificant 16%, at 9.21. As an aside, the lower yield is something of a disappointment. Crop levels began trending down after 2004 bottoming out in 2006, so although we would have preferred a bigger crop at least 2010 is part of a trend of slowly increasing yields over the last 3 vintages. We are not certain why this happened but are pleased that measures we have taken appear to be working. As readers might imagine, with so many things in our favour, the fruit intensity of the wine should be of a high order and indeed it is. All the typical Moss Wood Semillon characters are on display – apples, figs and honey etc but for those with an eye for the interesting detail of any vintage, we report something of a curiosity about this year’s Semillon. It produced a significant number of pink berries. Although Semillon is obviously a white grape, readers may be amused to learn that rose-coloured berries are quite common and occur in most vintages. However, for reasons about which we can only speculate, 2010 conditions produced them in much greater numbers. They have a distinctive musk, or muscat-like flavour that is almost confectionery in nature and this really adds to the complexity of the 2010.
