Moss Wood Cabernet Sauvignon 2012

Lisa Perrotti Brown MW – Robert Parker Wine Advocate, March 2016

“Deep garnet in color with a slight purple in the rim, Moss Wood's 2012 Cabernet Sauvignon opens with notes of crème de cassis, blackberry tart and anise with nuances of cloves, cedar, pencil lead, menthol and dark chocolate. Medium-bodied with oodles of opulence and spice on offer in the mouth, it has a gorgeous velvety texture, just enough freshness and great length.” 2016 - 2027, 95 Points

James Suckling – jamessuckling.com

A beautifully concentrated bold and ripe nose that has a lot of classy cedary oak and a core of cassis, dark cherry, blueberry and sweet spices, really nicely integrated; some gently earthy notes too. Great definition on the palate, really structured for the long haul. Deep and rich with plum and dark cherry flavors, cassis and mulberry too. Needs time, best from 2020.
96 Points

Top 100 – Weekend Australian

The high quality vintage shines through this wine, illuminating its intricate multifaceted complexity; almost, but not quite, juicy cassis fruit is swathed in perfectly balanced French oak and gently ripe tannins. The only problem will be keeping your hands off it. The Weekend Australian Magazine
98 Points

The Best of the West – Jane Faulkner for Halliday Magazine October 2015

Classic Wilyabrup characters starting with mulberries and chocolate, redcurrants and cassis too, then wafts of spice; cedary oak is prominent but not dominating, with ripe densely packed tannins. A powerhouse.
96 Points

Andreas Larsson

Moss Wood 2012 Cabernet Sauvignon blind tasted by Andreas Larsson, world’s best sommelier 2007.
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100 BEST AUSTRALIAN WINES 2015/2016 – Matthew Jukes

“The 2012 is an amazing standard for one of Australia’s more revered Cabernet Kings. Everything about this wine from tiny sub-region of Wilyabrup (the bull’s eye of Cabernet quality in MR) is restrained. The scent is pungent but not showy, the flavour is delivered soto vocce but resounding and the finish is like a massive electrical storm flashing and rumbling in the distance. This is one of the most stylish and complete wines ever released under this label.”

With over 9 million readers each weekend, Matthew Jukes has the most keenly followed wine column in the UK. He hosts corporate and consumer wine tastings all over the world as well as writing a weekly column for MoneyWeek and the Daily Mail.  Moss Wood is featured in his 100 Best Australian Wines Roadshow 2015/16.

Josh Raynolds – Vinous.com

(aged for 30 months in French oak barriques, 20% new): Brilliant ruby. Powerful, assertively perfumed aromas of fresh black and blue fruits, cured tobacco, cedary oak and potpourri. Sappy, densely packed and energetic on the palate, offering vibrant, spice-tinged cassis and mulberry flavors and an emerging mineral nuance. Finishes alluringly sweet and extremely long, with fine-grained tannins coming up slowly and adding grip.
94 Points

Angus Hughson – Wine Genius

Opaque ruby and showing mulberry, leaf, sage and cassis fruits that are ample yet reserved with balanced new oak. Dry and sturdy in the mouth – a masculine style for Moss Wood – and still relatively closed with well proportioned tannins and exceptional length, it is a wine that will reward cellaring.

94 points / 18.5
94 Points

Will Lyons – The Wall Street Journal

Quite simply one of the best Australian Cabernet Sauvignons I have tasted. Replete with fruit and flower scents, it has a generous mouth feel with a strong, spicy, oaky flavor on the finish. Lovers of Australian wine will find this hard to resist.

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Peter Bourne – Australian Gourmet Traveller Wine

This is Margaret River’s most age-worthy cabernet sauvignon. Full stop.

A dense, bold interpretation of Margaret River cabernet sauvignon, which only reveals its true personality after eight or more years’ bottle age. Deep blueberry and cassis flavours interplay with sweet spices and the distinct regional seaweed/iodine-like character. A dense swathe of inky tannins helps prolonge the finish.

Ray Jordan – The Bottom Drawer

“A wine that needs absolutely no introduction. In my humble opinion this is going to rank with the top 3 or 4 Moss Wood’s ever made. I just love this wine, it captures everything that you expect in Moss Wood. It’s subtle, it’s soft, it’s got great fruit richness and intensity. This one is a beauty. If you’re really serious about your Cabernet, West Australian Cabernet, you’re not going to get much better than the Moss Wood 2012.”

“Best of the Reds”, Newcastle Herald – John Lewis

Moss Wood owners Keith and Clare Mugford rate this among the best cab savs they have made and I agree. It and the Katnook Estate 2010 Odyssey have a vibrancy and structure that make them the two cabernet sauvignon stars of this tasting. The Moss Wood is bright magenta, beguiles with scents of red currants and rose petals and has 14 per cent alcohol. Lovely cassis flavour sings on the front of the palate and mulberry, mint chocolate, cloves and herbal fruit characters chime in with cedary oak on the middle palate. Persistent berry fruit and dusty tannins harmonise at the finish. Buy it in fine wine stores or at mosswood.com.au.

DRINK WITH: Margaret River beef with bearnaise sauce and ragout of sauteed button mushrooms

AGEING: 12 years

RATING: 5.5/6

Campbell Mattinson 95+ points
"Moss Wood cabernet, going way back, taught Australian wine enthusiasts the meaning of the words "superfine tannins". It's long been a wine of soft, seductive power, usually to the point where the more structural elements are difficult to discern, like a crow bar buried among a mountain of pillows. Blackcurrant, cranberry, mulberry and smoky cedar, with the prettiness of violets and the sweet surging seduction of redcurrant adding velocity as much as power. Both the wave and the undertow. It gives the wine an authority that's been missing. In fruit terms it's not drowning, it's saving. It has all the ropes and power and movement."

Climate Data

Growing Season Average Temperature: 20.58 °C
Hours accrued between 18 & 28 °C: 1025
Number of hours above 33 °C: 79

Days Elapsed Between Flowering and Harvest
Cabernet Sauvignon – 118 days
Cabernet Franc – 105 days
Petit Verdot – 120 days

Vintage notes:

The 2012 growing season was excellent. Rainfall through 2011 was very slightly above average and in particular, rain through the growing season amounted to a respectable 238 mm, keeping our dry grown vines nicely watered. The rain fell at the right times so as not to disrupt flowering and yields for Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot were all up by around 5%. Good fortune continued with Summer temperatures warm enough to promote consistent ripening. After a hot Australia Day (26th January), where the temperature topped out at 40.8, the vines settled into nice autumnal conditions, gradually proceeding to a maturity of 13.8o Baume on 22nd March. Ripeness was 5% above average and occurred 2 days earlier than average. Fruit condition was excellent with no disease or damage problems.

Winemakers comments:

In keeping with such a good season, the Moss Wood 2012 Cabernet Sauvignon ranks right up there with the best wines we have made and continues our dream run of quality vintages dating back to 2007.

The wine has an especially vibrant nose, with all sorts of lifted scents. There are violets, raspberries, mulberries and red currants fairly jumping out of the glass but underneath looms the classic complex notes of leather, earth, cedar and tar. Oak notes add further complexity. On the palate the theme of bright fruit notes continues. Generous mulberry and red currant avours ll the palate and they sit over quite a rm tannin structure giving the wine good weight and length. It carries the Moss Wood hallmark of youthful balance and drinkability.
Being such an attractive wine it is delicious to drink now. However, it is a wine in the mould of previous vintages like 2008, 1996 and 1985, especially the latter, if slightly more tannic than that vintage. Accordingly, for those who enjoy some maturity in their wines, we recommend a minimum cellaring time of 10 to 15 years. For those who like fully mature characters, the cellaring requirement is 20 to 25 years.

Your favourite recipe for this wine:

Steak with herb butter
150g unsalted butter, diced and softened
1 small French shallot (eschallot), finely chopped
2 tablespoons finely chopped parsley
2 tablespoons chopped chives
1 teaspoon chopped capers
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon grated lemon rind
1 dash Worcestershire sauce
½ teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 steaks

1. Make herb butter by putting butter, shallot, parsley, chives, capers, mustard, lemon rind, Worcestershire sauce, salt and a good grinding of black pepper into a small bowl. Using a fork or wooden spoon, beat mixture until ingredients are combined. Slowly add lemon juice, beating as you go, until combined.

2. Place herb butter on a sheet of non-stick baking paper then roll and shape it into a log about 4cm in diameter, twisting the ends of the paper like a cracker. Chill for about 1 hour (or store for up to 2 weeks).

3. Place a heavy grill pan or frying pan over a high heat and cook steaks until done to your liking.

4. Place two 1cm slices of the chilled butter on each steak and pop under a hot grill until starting to melt. Serve immediately.

Serves 2