James Halliday, Wine Companion

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.

“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."

95+ Points / Campbell Mattinson, Wine Front

Tasting Notes

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 flavours fill the palate and they sit over quite a firm tannin structure giving the wine good weight and length. It carries the Moss Wood hallmark of youthful balance and drinkability

Wine Overview