Moss Wood Cabernet Sauvignon 2020
All the fruit was hand-picked into bins and delivered to the winery where it was destemmed and placed in small open fermenters. Each batch was seeded with multiple yeast strains and fermentation proceeded with temperatures controlled to a maximum of 30°C. Colour and flavour extraction was by hand plunging 3 times per day and skin contact time was typically 16 days. After pressing, malolactic fermentation was carried out in stainless steel tanks and then each batch was racked to oak. All barrels were 228 litre French oak and 17% were new.
On 17th October 2022, all barrels were racked to stainless steel and blended in preparation for bottling. Fining trials were carried out but none improved the tannin balance of the wine and so it remained unfined. It was then bottled on 1st October 2022.
Beef and Venison
Dark and red berry aromas of blueberry, blackberry and redcurrant, plus some violets, cloves, dark jube and musk, a sure indicator of the presence of Petit Verdot. The complex background is all about Cabernet Sauvignon, with lots of tar, dark chocolate, tobacco and even some cinnamon and toasty oak.
There is a concentration of all features which make this a classic, low-crop Moss Wood Cabernet Sauvignon, which in many ways, takes us all the way back to 1981. A full-bodied wine, there are generous blueberry and blackberry flavours, as well as dark, chocolate, coffee and licorice that fill the mid-palate. They sit over a structure of fresh acidity and concentrated tannin, making the wine bright, long and, for Moss Wood Cabernet Sauvignon, quite taut.
