TN: Moss Wood Cabernet Sauvignon 1995

[Neville K]

Regarded as an excellent vintage, perhaps the best of the decade.

Purple- dark red in colour; dusty; mushrooms, olives, meat extract, green capsicum on the nose with a hint of menthol. It is medium-full bodied on the palate with firm tannins. From an initial mustiness there revealed ripe sweet mouthfilling fruit. This had nobility written over it. No need to look at another for several years.****(*)

[Baby Chickpea]

Thanks for the TN Neville - i have quite a bit of this wine so was happy with your prognosis!

[Rory]

Neville,

I think we had a '96 last year or thereabouts at one of our offlines (at Fedelis I think). IF you kept any notes from that, how do the two vintages compare?

Rory

[ChrisH]

Rory

From 12 months ago :

1996 Moss Wood Cabernet
Deep red, blackish middle. Young on both nose and palate, displaying rich cassis fruit and oak. Seems almost bigger to me than when I tasted it on release – again showing the results of a great vintage for Moss Wood. It still needs some time in the cellar to develop its renowned complexity and velvet smoothness – I’d suggest maybe 5+ years

1996 was one of their all-time classics.


regards
Chris

[Martin C]

Had a small vertical 95-99 1.5yrs ago. The best was 95,99,96,98,97 in that order. The 98 & 97 was clearly fr a diff. league living on the winery's reputation.

[Aussie Johns]

Had a small vertical 95-99 1.5yrs ago. The best was 95,99,96,98,97 in that order. The 98 & 97 was clearly fr a diff. league living on the winery's reputation.

....spot on there, Martin. Both the 97 and 98 are really ordinary, I think there was a bit of an oak fascination there, combined with two very average vintages. Both are over-worked wines. Personally, I don't think Moss Wood made any great wines between 95 and 01, and I'm not too fussed with the 96.

...the 95 and 01 are great wines, as is the horribly under-rated 94, which I have thus far found to be my pick of all vintages 1980-present. (I have been on the list since the mid-80's, and have purchased the red every year.)

[Martin C]

AJ,
Tasted side by side, the 99 was more precoucious wine than the 95. The '95 will certainly outlived the 99. I wonder why Keith doesnt stick to the 'older' style?
Now for the same bucks, I favour Jack Mann. Their '99 was monumental!
Cheers,
MC

[sanjay]

Hi,

The 1995 is a top wine and has the structuure to age for a very long time. It will be an outstanding wine with another 10 years of bottle age and then it will be interesting to compare it or the 1996 with a similar vintage from Bordeaux.

I agree that the wineyard some how lost the plot in 1997 and 1998. I can't fathom why they made such pedestrain wines when Cullen made decent stuff. Even the standard Voyager pulled rabbits out of its hat during those two vintages.

It will be interesting to see how the 2002 will fare.


sanjay

[Aussie Johns]

Hi,

The 1995 is a top wine and has the structuure to age for a very long time. It will be an outstanding wine with another 10 years of bottle age and then it will be interesting to compare it or the 1996 with a similar vintage from Bordeaux.

I agree that the wineyard some how lost the plot in 1997 and 1998. I can't fathom why they made such pedestrain wines when Cullen made decent stuff. Even the standard Voyager pulled rabbits out of its hat during those two vintages.

It will be interesting to see how the 2002 will fare.

....yep, the 95 will compare very favourably, I should think. Not too sure about the 96. Not as good as the 95, and the 96 left bankers are going to be very special indeed. Better than both 1990 and 1982, IMO.


sanjay