Moss Wood Ribbon Vale Cabernet Sauvignon Margaret River, West Australia – 2018

Keith and Clare Mugford purchased their Ribbon Vale vineyard in 2000, although the vines were planted in 1977. It is located in the top quality Wilyabrup sub region of Margaret River, less than 1km away from their original Moss Wood vineyard. The soils here are mainly gravel over a clay subsoil, very similar to the Medoc, but this vineyard is more elevated than the Moss Wood vineyard and faces south rather than north, so is cooler and the grapes take longer to ripen.

“On the nose, this Cabernet Sauvignon has a range of fruit aromas that very few varieties can match.  It dominates this wine, with redcurrant, leather and tar but unusually for Ribbon Vale, there is a suggestion of floral aroma, in particular, violets.  The small percentage of Cabernet Franc has bolstered the black fruit note by introducing cherries and similarly for Merlot, which adds in blackberry.

The high-quality theme for the 2018 vintage continues on the palate, with full body and a concentrated tannin structure playing a co-starring role behind generous and supple blackberry, blueberry and fruit cake flavours, complemented by some tarry, smoky and toasty oak notes on the finish.  Very smooth indeed and probably the best Ribbon Vale Cabernet Sauvignon the winery have made!

CELLARING

In some respects, we are beginning to feel our cellaring recommendations are becoming a bit academic.  By this we mean after 20 years we are now very confident the wines from the Ribbon Vale vineyard will age just as well as their Moss Wood siblings.  The Cabernet Sauvignon will cellar for decades but for those who seek some complexity from cellaring but don’t wish to wait say 25 years for full maturity, we recommend at least 10 years cellaring.  Of course, as with the 2018 Ribbon Vale Merlot, this wine shares the sheer generosity of the vintage and will be hard to resist for long.” Keith Mugford; owner and winemaker.