Moss Wood Cabernet Sauvignon 1995

Description

The colour is medium to dark red with brick red hues; the nose is intensely fruity, showing a lifted fragrance of mulberries, raspberries, violets, redcurrants and some merlot, malbec earthiness. It has been aged in 51% new oak (225 litres Allier medium-toasted barrels) and this gives a spicy oakiness which remains a background feature because of the wine's generosity of the fruit. The palate has generous red and dark fruit flavours, good acidity, (quite lifted for a Moss Wood Cabernet) and soft spicy oak, with delightful, integrated tannins. Already it has a quite silky texture.

The 1995 Moss Wood Cabernet Sauvignon appears remarkably approachable at present with perfumed aromas of red berries while the palate shows lively spice, red cherry, mulberry and cedary oak flavours. The wine is rich and concentrated with a texture that is soft and silky. It has great depth and length, impressive intensity and powerful yet fine tannins on a long, lingering finish. It has all the hallmarks of a great Moss Wood Cabernet.

We have always been haunted by the similarity of the 1995 Cabernet to the 1975. We are worried because we don't much like the idea of a twenty year cycle. However, unquestionably there has not been a wine with the same intense fruit flavours and silky tannins since the 1975 and this is the reason that the 1995 wine has a rating of 10. We believe that it may, in the long term, supplant the 1991 at the head of the queue of Moss Wood Cabernets.