This was a very good vintage in Margaret River after the slightly more challenging ’21. This has the refined elegance and prettiness that is the Moss Wood DNA. The colour is quite pale compared to some previous vintages, but don’t be fooled into thinking this is some shrinking violet. Violets, yes, but plenty more in an engine room that is balanced and poised as the tannins and almost lyrically laid oak harness the exquisitely bright fruit. So well balanced. A wine of immense charm and appeal. I defy you to stop after the first sip.
98 POINTS
Ken Gargett - Winepilot
This stunning Margaret River Cabernet has 4% Cabernet Franc and 2% Petit Verdot included. The team talk of some of the difficulties encountered by Margaret River wineries during this year, but everything is relative and a difficult vintage here seems to be the dream of many other regions. It was a year that finished extremely well, though, with a longer than average ripening period. Yields were down but in the end, some stellar fruit was harvested. Maturation was in French oak, 16% new, for around seventeen months. A deep maroon hue, there are notes of spices, herbs, black fruits, cloves, cassis, graphite, chocolate and tobacco leaves. A touch of biscuity oak, very well integrated, this is a wine of focus and intensity, and at all times it is immaculately balanced. Utterly seamless and seductive, there is a line of fine acidity running the full journey and the silkiest of tannins on the finish. This will easily sail through the next fifteen to twenty years, providing immense pleasure along the way. A superb Cabernet.
97 POINTS
Jane Faulkner - Halliday Wine Companion
When you’re the flagship, there’s always pressure because you must be the best of the best. Well, take a bow. This harnesses all the power of fruit and winemaking, all seemingly effortlessly, and turns it into an elegant, stunning wine balancing savouriness with fruit. Just the right amount of cassis, mulberries, violets and spicy, cedary oak, nori and menthol and more besides. The palate builds yet stays just shy of fuller bodied with fine-grained tannins, refreshing acidity and superb length. Excellent now and with decades ahead of it. Oh and another accolade, this represents the 50th vintage of the wine. Take another bow.
97 POINTS
Erin Larkin - Robert Parker Wine Advocate
I taste in batches of six, pouring each glass, gassing the bottles and working my way through the flight. Today, this 2022 Cabernet Sauvignon was poured in glass number five, and so it has had some time to breathe. Upon pouring, the nose was so abundantly, luxuriatingly steeped in graphite, fresh lead pencil (a smell so potent and specific and good), forest floor and pure, summer raspberry. After 20 minutes or so in the glass, the oak has begun to recede, and the fruit is swelling up. The 2022 season in Margaret River was warm, dry and early, and the quality of the Cabernets (particularly) was stellar. While the oak is a feature at this stage, the fruit is so sensationally poised and powerful that this will be a super superstar in the decades to come. We know that the old Moss Woods prevail even now—corks willing—and so aided and abetted by modern screw caps, these wines will patiently plod through the coming decades with ease. This is one of Australia's most collected/cellared premium wines for a reason. 14% alcohol, sealed under screw cap.
97 POINTS
Erin Larkin - Robert Parker Wine Advocate
2022 was a warm, dry and early vintage in Margaret River, one that produced particularly great Cabernets in the region. Here, the 2022 Cabernet Sauvignon is tasted in context with Cabernets going back to the 1970s, and it represents the most recent Cabernet in the history of this estate. It has recently been reviewed, and the score stands true to the wine in the glass today. This is grainy and powerful, ripe and excellent, with fully resolved, pliable tannins and fresh, saline acidity. It's a wine for the future, although it drinks very well now.
97 POINTS
Cassandra Charlick - Decanter
Still a baby of a wine, tightly bundled, but goodness: the presence is there. Toasty oak wraps the fruit, yet it’s well matched to the power of 2022. Red fruit laced with aniseed, a graphite through line and warm spice – just a pinch of vanilla. The palate is like lifting the gate to a dam – the flavour and shape swooshes through and it’s heart stopping. Tannins are incredibly fine and silken, so much so that they are almost indistinguishable, and acidity just trips along lightly. This has impeccable structure behind the intensity of fruit. A true sum of its parts, juicy and structured, fluid and effortless. An energetic Cabernet that displays an honest exuberance in its youth, yet will age with serious intention.
97 POINTS
Cassandra Charlick - Decanter
Nose still tightly wound, but offers lightly toasted oak with tart fruit hints and subtle baking spice. Palate refreshes with juicy red fruits, tomato skin, red pepper, goji berry, cranberry and oodles of succulence. Sichuan pepper and fennel blossom add lift. Refreshing, open and complex, the expressive fruit held taut over a firm, fine structure. Ball bearing tannins, energy, detail and incredible concentration. Single vineyard, Houghton clone, aged in 15% new French oak barriques.
96 POINTS
Gary Walsh - The Wine Front
94% Cabernet Sauvignon, 4% Cabernet Franc, 2% Petit Verdot. Here we have a classic Moss Wood Cabernet, and maybe, though don’t mind me, it puts me in mind of the 2001 for richness and presence.
It’s a powerhouse Cabernet and classic Moss Wood in terms of intensity and regal carriage. Black fruit, dried cranberry, cedar, nutmeg, dried flower perfume, tobacco, and damp earth. It sweeps though the palate with grilled nuts, toast, fresh blackberry, a whole lot of sweet grainy tannin and black tea perfume, acidity is balanced and present, and the finish thunders and goes very long. Quite a wine. Outstanding.
