Moss Wood

Planted in 1969 Moss Wood is an important, founding estate of the Margaret River wine region, located in the northern sub–region of Wilyabrup, Western Australia. Chief winemaker & viticulturalist Keith Mugford has been making wine & tending the vineyard at Moss Wood since 1979. In 1984 he was joined by his wife Clare. Their exacting viticulture ensures the production of grapes of excellent quality & they have created a stable of fine wines distinguished by their consistency over each vintage & their ability to age superbly. The Moss Wood & Mugford names are synonymous with uncompromising quality & since 2000 their admirable viticultural holdings include Ribbon Vale Vineyard. By going to our Purchase tab you can purchase our current wines. By becoming a Moss Wood member you can enjoy further benefits, including 15% off all wine purchases. We hope you enjoy the experience.

Kind regards,

Clare and Keith Mugford.

In 1984 Clare and Keith Mugford married, leased and became managing partners of Moss Wood Vineyard and Winery followed by ownership in 1985. This was the beginning of a journey of great excitement and adventure working with one of the finest vineyards in Australia.

This land was previously farmed, from 1868, firstly by an American Whaler, John Adams and his new young Wife Mary, who as Mary Smith had travelled to Ellensbrook with Ellen Bussell, from Busselton to help her with her family. Adams had jumped ship from one of the passing Whalers, apparently a not so infrequent occurrence and had been welcomed with open arms by the Bussell family who had been struggling in the absence of their patriarch who was away droving cattle. Mary and John farmed the Moss Wood property, which they had named Marylands in honour of his homeland, until it was taken up by the Kisella family who in turn farmed it until 1904. The land remained vacant for some years until a German immigrant Ernie Rapts took it up. He was interned during the Second World War but returned to his farm until his death at which time the land was sold to the Guthrie family from whom Bill and Sandra Pannell, purchased it in 1969.

Bill had a passion to grow the great grape varieties of France and was determined to access the best possible site. His search was informed, like that of other pioneers of the Margaret River area, by the work of Perth agronomist Dr John Gladstones (completed 1966) who favoured the region for its consistent and suitable climate for growing grapes and a visit to Western Australia by Professor Harold Olmo, from the University of California at Davis in 1955. Olmo also identified other Western Australian regions as climatically similar to the great European vineyard areas but noted that Margaret River had a more reliable rainfall. Bill Pannell, after digging many holes around the Margaret River hinterland, chose the Moss Wood site for its soils and aspect.

In 1979 Keith arrived fresh from graduating with a Bachelor of Applied Science in Oenology from Roseworthy College in South Australia and having completed vintages at Tullochs (1977) and Orlando (1978).

Clare started her working life in banking and then as a Registered Nurse at Royal Perth Hospital, Western Australia.In 1984, the newly married Mugfords leased the Moss Wood vineyard and winery and became managing partners of the then 20 acre vineyard (on 80 acres of land) and small winery producing 3,000 cases of wine annually. During this year the sale of the property was negotiated and in July 1985 the Mugfords assumed full ownership. It has been, and continues to be, an interesting and challenging journey for both of them.

Many newly trialled and significant viticultural improvements, in line with new developments in vine management, in Australia, were instituted producing better grape exposure for ripening; and production grew to 6000 cases by the year 2000. During this period Petit Verdot, Merlot and Cabernet Franc were planted to add to the traditional Bordeaux blend plus small quantities of Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay were also planted. The 1996 vintage saw a positive change to the Moss Wood Cabernet Sauvignon, the flagship wine. Already a sought after, rich style, it was concluded that the whole production of this wine could greatly benefit from an additional 12 months in oak. This had been trialled for many years previously with a barrel of the very best years held back in oak for a further twelve months and released as the Moss Wood Cabernet Sauvignon Special Reserve. This wine was always well received but created great angst for the proprietors while they tried to eek it out fairly to all their enthusiastic customers. Deciding to give all Moss Wood Cabernet Sauvignon this treatment created a further business problem. The Cabernet Sauvignon provided a major component of the winery’s cash flow and would be sorely missed when one whole release year was skipped. As luck would have it, Ian Bell, a long time employee of Moss Wood, offered to sell the Mugfords some Cabernet Sauvignon to make a stop-gap wine from the vineyard he planted in 1990 on his grandmother, Amy Beers’s farm. This wine was named the Moss Wood Glenmore Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon, after the farm it was grown on. History reveals that it was anything but a stop-gap wine, continuing to be successful for Moss Wood until 2001 when it was decided to change the name to Amy’s. By the commencement of the 2000 vintage a new winery building was added to process the expanded production.

The year 2000 also saw the purchase of the Ribbon Vale vineyard which is located 1.2kms south of the Moss Wood vineyard within the Wilyabrup region. The Ribbon Vale vines were planted between 1977 and 1982. The addition of the new vineyard introduced Moss Wood to Sauvignon Blanc and led to the first blended Semillon Sauvignon Blanc wine being made. Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Cabernet Franc completed the new stable.

Over the year’s new skills have been required and with a firm belief in continual improvement, both Clare and Keith have furthered their studies. Clare holds a Graduate Diploma in Wine Business from Adelaide University, graduating in 2002 and has completed studies towards a Bachelor of Arts, majoring in Economics and Politics at The University of Western Australia. Keith completed a Master of Business Administration from the Australian Graduate School of Management (a joint school of the Universities of NSW and Sydney), graduating in 2006 and achieving the School’s top prize for Executive MBA graduates, the Integritas Award. The Mugfords have four children, Eloise, Tristan, Hugh and Imogen.

The emphasis at Moss Wood in the vineyard and winery is on the highest quality hand production and continuing reference to viticultural and winemaking technical advances. The land that Moss Wood holds that is not suitable for grape production is being steadily re-vegetated from pasture to the natural vegetation of the region. As touched on briefly in our preamble, a paper by Agronomist, Dr John Gladstones, first drew attention to the suitability of the Margaret River region for making wine. Gladstones believed that the soil found in the area, clay subsoil covered by gravelly loam, was ideal for viticulture. He compared the Margaret River climate with that of Bordeaux, indicating that both had an average rainfall of over 1000mms and an absence of temperature extremes, because of the influence of the sea on three sides. One of the first to be influenced by Gladstones’ theory was Bill Pannell who spent six months searching the Margaret River area for ideal land for a vineyard. He chose a site at Wilyabrup and persuaded the owner, Jack Guthrie, to sub-divide his land and to sell the block, which became Moss Wood. Bill and Sandra Pannell commenced work on the Moss Wood Vineyard in 1969 at the same time as the Hohnens were developing Cape Mentelle and just two years after Dr Tom Cullity began the first vineyard in the area at Vasse Felix. A nursery for Cabernet was established in 1969, and the next year, two hectares of Cabernet Sauvignon were planted.

The first vintage took place in 1973 when 250 dozen bottles of Moss Wood Cabernet Sauvignon was made. The Moss Wood Pinot Noir was first produced in 1977. Semillon was the first white wine planted at Moss Wood because suitable cuttings of Chardonnay did not become available in Western Australia until 1976. The first crop of Semillon was harvested in 1976, although a commercial release was not possible until the next vintage. Similarly, the first vintage of Chardonnay, in 1980, was not released commercially and as the next two crops were destroyed by bad weather, the public did not see a Moss Wood Chardonnay until the 1983 vintage.

In 1989 Ian Bell, was appointed Vineyard Manager after working at Moss Wood from 1985 to 1987 and then studying at Roseworthy College where he qualified as a viticulturist. In 1998 Ian moved into the position of Assistant Winemaker. Then further changes…. After 21 years with the company, Ian Bell resigned in 2006 and returned home to his Yallingup Vineyard to further his fortunes with his Glenmore wines.

Clare and Keith Mugford continue to enjoy the challenge of consistently producing high quality wines at Moss Wood. By striving to implement appropriate viticultural and vinicultural advances, they aim to further improve their understanding of premium wine production and enable Moss Wood to maintain its position as a leading Australian winery.

Over the years fruit from several vineyards, each with their own distinct characters and qualities, has been sourced to produce wines to complement those which come from our vineyard at Moss Wood.

Each vineyard produces its own range of wines with no fruit inter-blending between vineyards. Click on the individual vineyards listed above to find out more about them.

As a new wine producing area, Margaret River has a short viticultural history, therefore winemakers need to be continually assessing their soil management practices and the performance of their vines if they are to understand the viticulture of the region and obtain the best results in the vineyard.

The Climate in Margaret River

Margaret River is on the south-western tip of the Australian continent at latitude 34 degrees south. It has a maritime climate and avoids both summer and winter extremes. The ocean also benefits the area as the consistent summer sea breeze maintains a relatively high humidity.

The rainfall occurs mainly in winter, as can be seen from the following:
Average annual rainfall (long term) – 1125mm
Average annual rainfall (last 8 years) – 960mm
Average rainfall Oct-March (long term) – 190mm
Average rainfall Oct-March (last 8 years) – 169mm

The wind and hail damage that sometimes results from spring gales can lead to crop losses. Chardonnay has been significantly affected three times in the last decade and the Pinot Noir crop was halved in 1980.

The Year in the Vineyard

Early June to August
Vineyard maintenance: pruning, trellis maintenance, sowing cover crops between vines, which provide organic matter for the soil.

September to Early January
Spray program to combat fungal disease.

October
Light ploughing to kill weeds and ensure retention of soil moisture.

Mid November to Mid January
Attention to foliage placement and trimming to ensure that proper organisation of foliage allows easy penetration of sprays and maximum exposure of bunches and leaves for optimum ripeness of grapes.

February to April
Vintage.

Vine Development

Each stage of the growing process for the four main grape varieties produced at Moss Wood occurs roughly one week apart: with the Chardonnay being followed by the Pinot Noir, the Semillon and finally the Cabernet Sauvignon.

Stages of the growing process:
Budburst Chardonnay – second week in August
Budburst Cabernet – last week in September
Flowering Chardonnay – third week in October
Flowering Cabernet – last week in November
Veraison (colour change)- Chardonnay first week in January
Veraison (colour change)- Cabernet first week in February

Moss Wood Wines

Experimentation in the vineyard has been matched at the winery and the wines have undergone subtle refinements over the past decade.

Two factors have resulted in the production of Moss Wood Cabernet Sauvignon, which are more complex and have greater finesse. The wines are given longer skin contact time during fermentation and small amounts of Cabernet Franc (5%) and Merlot (0.05%) are now included in the blend. From the 1995 vintage onwards, Petit Verdot has contributed 5% to the wine. The benchmarks for the Moss Wood style, however, remain the Cabernet Sauvignons made between 1974 and 1977.

Burgundian influences have seen new techniques used in the production of Moss Wood Pinot Noir: the addition of whole bunches of grapes to the crush, longer skin contact time during fermentation and hand and feet plunging to mix the skins while the must is fermenting. These refinements in winemaking have been responsible for an improvement in the quality and consistency of the style.

There has been a slight but significant refinement in the style of Moss Wood Chardonnay. It now spends twelve to eighteen months in barrel on its lees without being stirred with a significant proportion undergoing a full malolactic fermentation during this time. Experimentation has resulted in the winery being more specific in its choice of oak for the Chardonnay: one hundred percent of the wine is barrel fermented in medium toasted Troncais and Allier oak.

The style of the Moss Wood Semillon has evolved since 1980 with the emphasis on achieving good depth of fruit flavour.

Ribbon Vale Wines

All grape processing is now carried out at the Moss Wood winery. For the 2000 vintage, winemaking continued at Ribbon Vale but the decision was made to consolidate to Moss Wood for 2001. With hindsight, this was inevitable given the additional resources required to operate two wineries and the time spent moving between them. Furthermore, the equipment at Moss Wood is of a higher standard and it was pointless not to take advantage of it. Ribbon Vale now operates as an air-conditioned warehouse for all packaged stock.

We have in place a five year plan which we believe is the time it will take for us to achieve the quality we want for Ribbon Vale. While the conditions of the season are beyond our control, we are confident that each new vintage during that time will see a significant improvement in the wines, as we strive to meet the expectations of our customers.

As an overall view of red wine production, we want to change the tannin structure of both wines. To achieve this, the grapes are picked riper, extraction techniques are more gentle during fermentation and time on skins has been cut form six weeks to two weeks. We are supporting this with a new oak-ageing regime, where only French oak is used and the barrel size has been reduced from 300 litres to 225 litres. We believe that this will enhance the cellaring ability of the wines and provide better balance in the short term.

Changes in the focus for the Ribbon Vale red wines has resulted in the discontinuation of the varietal Cabernet Sauvignon. Whilst a powerful and concentrated wine, the Moss Wood team have been more impressed with the blended wine Ribbon Vale Cabernet Merlot. Our view is that a blend roughly consisting of 60% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot and 10% Cabernet Franc gives a better quality outcome and this is the direction we will pursue.

The individual Ribbon Vale Merlot was retained because we were impressed with the depth and complexity that this variety achieves at Ribbon Vale Vineyard. With each vintage the team has a better understanding of the techniques required here and it is providing some interesting challenges. Not surprisingly, Merlot requires different handling compared to Cabernet Sauvignon.

After much experimentation in the 2000 vintage, Ribbon Vale Semillon and Sauvignon Blanc is blended, using around 60% of the former and 40% of the latter. The wine does not receive any barrel ageing but the Moss Wood technique of lees-stirring in tank is used to build complexity and texture. It was our conclusion that the blend was of better quality than the individual wines from each variety. This highlights a difference with Moss Wood where Semillon has sufficient depth and complexity to continue as a varietal wine.

Moss Wood was established as a specialist, high-quality winery. This was its raison d’etre and still provides the motivation for its continued existence. It is Clare and Keith’s belief that all decisions made in the vineyard, or at the winery, are based on the effect they will have on the quality of the wine.

As a new wine producing area, Margaret River has a short viticultural history, therefore winemakers need to be continually reassessing their soil management practices and the performance of their vines if they are to understand the viticulture of the region and obtain the best results in the vineyard.

A belief that the quality of the wine is largely determined in the vineyard means that continual efforts are made at Moss Wood to improve viticultural techniques. This can be seen in the changeover to the Scott Henry trellising system for Chardonnay and Pinot Noir and the adoption of the similar Te Kauwhata Two Tier system for the recently planted Cabernet Franc, Merlot and Petit Verdot. These changes have reduced foliage density and exposed the grapes to more sunlight. Not only has this improved quality and crop yield but also it has made picking, pruning and spraying easier and quicker.

As well as this, we pay particular attention to all aspects of soil conservation technology including deep cultivation, the use of cover crops, minimum tillage and mulching. Mulching has played a significant role in saving the vines from stress in the dry summer months. The rigorous pruning of Pinot Noir to reduce crop is another vineyard practice that leads to an improvement in the quality of this wine at Moss Wood. The reduction in the yield per vine allows the same amount of nutrients to be shared among a smaller number of berries. As a result, the wine has a deeper colour and greater intensity of flavour than would be the case without bunch thinning.

The attention to detail and response to current research in the vineyard has been matched at the winery and the wines have undergone subtle refinements over the past decade. Two factors have resulted in the production of Moss Wood Cabernet Sauvignons, which are more complex and have greater finesse. The wines are given longer skin contact time during fermentation and small amounts of Cabernet Franc (5%) and Merlot (0.05%) are now included in the blend. From the 1995 vintage onwards, Petit Verdot has contributed 5% to the wine. The benchmarks for the Moss Wood style, however, remain the Cabernet Sauvignons made between 1974 and 1977.

Burgundian influences have seen new techniques used in the production of Pinot Noir: the addition of whole bunches of grapes to the crush, longer skin contact time during fermentation and hand and feet plunging to mix the skins while the must is fermenting. These refinements in winemaking have been responsible for an improvement in the quality and consistency of the style.

There has been a slight, but significant refinement in the style of Moss Wood Chardonnay. It now spends twelve to eighteen months in barrel on its lees without being stirred with a significant proportion undergoing a full malolactic fermentation during this time. Barrel trials have resulted in the winery being more specific in its choice of oak for the Chardonnay: the wine is barrel fermented in medium toasted Troncais and Allier oak.

The style of the Moss Wood Semillon has evolved since 1980 with the emphasis on achieving good depth of fruit flavour. It is picked in three stages green, medium and maximum ripeness to enhance the complexity of the wine.