Log in / Sign up Moss Wood Ribbon Vale 'Elsa' Sauvignon Blanc 2021
This is the third vintage of our Elsa wine and we feel we’re making progress with the style. In the search for more complexity of aroma and flavour, we’re now picking the Sauvignon Blanc riper. The original “Elsa” in 2019 contained 12.7% alcohol but in 2020 we upped this to 13.9% and felt that vintage had more depth and we continue this theme in 2021, with 13.5%.
With the higher level of ripeness comes a more interesting nose. Although Sauvignon Blanc has a terrific freshness, courtesy of the gooseberry and grassy notes, too much of this leaves the wine a bit one-dimensional. By picking at higher sugar levels, these are enhanced by lychee, pear, and passionfruit. Perhaps more importantly, the higher alcohol brings a much richer texture to the palate, something we see as important in balancing the variety’s naturally high acidity.
This is fresh and crisp with medium to full body and lifted acidity, giving a Chablis-like flintiness; there are generous lime, lychee, honeydew melon, caramel, and preserved lemon flavours filling the mid-palate, making the wine relatively round and generous and there is a touch of oak and tannin on the finish.
Perfumed with lifted, floral scents of lychees, limes, frangipani, and lavender combined with guava lemon curd and caramel and a background of toasty oak notes.
