1973 Moss Wood Cabernet Sauvignon, Margaret River – Western Australia
A paper by plant scientist, Dr John Gladstones, first drew attention to the suitability of the Margaret River region for making wine. He ascertained that the clay subsoils covered by gravelly loams, and cool equable maritime climate were ideal for viticulture. The similarities to the Bordeaux region are remarkable. The paper captured the imagination of Dr Bill Pannell, a Perth-based medico, and who spent six months searching the Margaret River area. By chance he chose a beautiful parcel of land in the Wilyabrup sub-region and managed to persuade the land-owner to part with it! Bill and Sandra Pannell started work on the property in 1969, only a few years after Dr Tom Cullity, another Perth doctor, established the area’s first commercial vineyard at neighbouring Vasse Felix. In 1970 the first plantings of Moss Wood Cabernet Sauvignon were established. When the first vintage took place in 1973, only 250 dozen bottles of wine was made. In 1978 Keith Mugford, a young Roseworthy winemaking graduate joined Moss Wood as winemaker. By 1985 Keith and Clare Mugford had assumed full ownership. Within a decade Moss Wood Cabernet Sauvignon had fully established itself as one of Australia’s most fabled cabernet sauvignons with a history of graceful aging. In 2005 it was classified “Exceptional” by Langton’s illustrating its “first growth” currency on the Australian secondary wine market. Moss Wood Cabernet Sauvignon has retained its Exceptional listing underscoring it's continued currency on the auction market.The historic 1973 Moss Wood Cabernet Sauvignon – the winery's first vintage - fetched AU$2,301 (£962) in 2007 at Langton's, the highest price ever paid for a post-1970 bottle of Australian wine.
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