Moss Wood vs Pierro Chardonnay 2009 Horizontal Tasting

Two key take-aways on these Margaret River’s Chardonnay, both cellared for 5 years now…

As you may know the Pierro Chardonnay is the one that changed my mind of Aussie wines. The fragrant and fruitiness it possessed were memorable and since then, I just fall in love with the Western Australia’s white wines, especially Chardonnay.

On the other hand, Moss Wood is another excellent winery in Margaret River producing outstanding Cabernet Sauvignon and of course Chardonnay, to my opinions. The creamy, buttery and nutty-ness of Moss Wood Chardonnay is described by my friend as textbook quality.

In fact, it was almost 5 years ago I was focusing on the wines of this area, given it’s proximity to my new home. The 2007 and 2008 vintages are good standard and most of the Aussie vintage are quite stable and consistent.

Nevertheless, I un-screwed these two bottles for a horizontal tasting…

First of all, the aroma from the bottles are both good. Moss Wood is more buttery and Pierro is more fruity.

And the color can easily tell… Moss Wood is more golden straw and Pierro is pale straw.

Actually the color of Moss Wood immediately gave me a hint of aging, which is very similar to the color of the same wine of Vintage 2000 which I tasted a few years back.

Both wines are losing the freshness as give, and the take is the complexity. The lime and citrus in the finish are definitely not available five years ago.

Seems to me that they are about peak of drinking now. For Pierro, it’s true for the tasting notes given by the winery. However, for Moss Wood, it may be a bit challenge to have 25 years aging potential as indicated by the winemaker.

Lucky that I still got a few bottles of Moss Wood 2009 Chardonnay, I reckon they would be tasted in the next few 5-year intervals. Then it could tell whether the cellaring potential is correct or not.

Thus, to summarize my two take-aways:

The five years aging for both bottles are obvious. Both are turning the fruitiness to a more complexed finish.
The aging potential for Moss Wood Chardonnay 2009 would be a challenge, but who knows… need time to prove anyway !

Cheers for now 🙂