TN: Moss Wood Cabernet Sauvignon 1976!!!! Amazing juice

[Phil Wilkins]

I didn’t hold out much hope for this so I sadly didn’t treat it with the respect it perhaps deserved. Opened on a whim & drunk as the level was at mid/high shoulder, the cork had leaked some of the contents which had badly stained the foil. After the first mouthful I wish I had saved it for a ‘special occasion’ or an appropriate off-line.

The colour is saturated with little bricking – so youthful in fact, it could have been from a 8 year old bottle not a 33 year old one. On the nose there is a lingering mix of rich plumy fruit, earth, forest floor and the obligatory stink of cigar box. The palate is velvety & sexy with a degree of opulence, low acidity, gorgeous fruit delineation and all just so beautifully layered. Not an overly complex wine but one that holds good amounts of personality. There is so little evolution in this bottle I suspect it was cellared somewhere very, very cool or it’s a fake. Amazing juice indeed for its age and all packed into a 740ml bottle.

[rwatkins]

Here in Canada we just got the 2005 vintage which I pick up a couple of bottles. $99.99 Canadian!! Any thoughts on how long to keep? Thanks - Rick

[Mahmoud Ali]

Phil,

A fine result from an old bottle. One can never tell with these old bottles, especially from a reputable producer like Moss Wood. Where did you get the wine? And how much did you pay for it?

Last year I found a single bottle of 1976 Leoville Poyferre in a small bottle shop. The level was okay but the label was stained and dirty. I had no idea how this small dusty shop of cheap wines had got hold of it and how it had been stored. The shopkeeper said it had been there, upright, for over a year but that I could have it, and a couple of other older Bordeaux wines, for C$15 each! At that point I couldn't care less how the wines had been stored and walked out with my "prize".

Well, like you, I was very pleasantly surprised. The wine was lovely, elegant, refined and full of complex mature flavours, nothing like Parker's 1998 description that starts "Very soft, flabby, almost soupy......" and only 75 points. Perhaps it needed another decade.

Cheers...................Mahmoud.

[Mahmoud Ali]

Rick,

Judging by Phil's experience, as long as you can, as long as you can................Mahmoud.

[Phil Wilkins]

It cost me the equivalent of AU$54. Astounding value with all things considered, but also a bit of a lucky dip.

[griff]

Here in Canada we just got the 2005 vintage which I pick up a couple of bottles. $99.99 Canadian!! Any thoughts on how long to keep? Thanks - Rick

This is a fantastic vintage for Mosswood. Can keep for a decade or two in good conditions without a concern. Maybe three?

cheers

Carl

[griff]

Very jealous Phil. That is my birth year

cheers

Carl

[dlo]

IIRC, this was something I last tried about a decade ago and it was awfully darn good then. The good doctor certainly knew how to make good juice.

Great note Phil, thanks. Unfortunately, I'm down to a couple of the glorious 1983 Cape Mentelle CS .... the last of my aged Margaret River Cabernet.