2022 Nocturne Sangiovese Nebbiolo Rosé
|Carbanup Sub Region $35|Magnum $70

2022 it was a pretty cool vintage – well, it wasn’t really it was actually pretty darn warm, but the wines are cool. In my book, rosé quite likes a warm vintage. With an 88% share, Sangiovese is the hero of this wine, backed up with 8% barrel-fermented Tempranillo. Then we chucked in 4% Grenache, too. Not sure why - just had it and it worked - and, as in the past, don’t tell anyone; it hasn’t made the label but it helped make the wine! This wine is fine, ethereally light and delicious – I hate the term smashable as it sounds crass, so let’s go with this wine takes you too pleasure town. It’s what Ron Burgundy and Veronica Cornerstone would drink if they came to Margaret River. The fruit comes from the sub-region of Carbunup, with the sites being relatively flat and warm, with fertile, red sandy soils. The Sangiovese was harvested on 17 and 19th March and the Tempranillo just prior on 10th – a touch laterthan the previous year. The Sangiovese was simply destemmed, chilled and pressed using only the free-run fraction of the juice. It was then fermented at moderate temperatures using, as always, indigenous yeasts only. It was then matured on gross lees for three months postfermentation to add additional texture. The Tempranillo was handpicked and, after chilling, whole bunch-pressed directly to old oak for fermentation. Fermentation took four weeks, and the wine received a further eight weeks’ maturation in barrel. At this stage the final blend between Sangiovese and Tempranillo was decided, and the wine was emptied from tank/barrel, settled, filtered, sulphured and bottled on 14th July. This wine, in keeping with the theme of SR4, is different. It’s more Sangiovese-based and finer than in the past. That said the texture and structure are impeccable. Those who miss out on a magnum of this for their summer “A” list super-yacht regattas hold their vinous credentials too cheap. It is, as always, a pale salmon dream best drunk wearing white xxx

– Julian Langworthy

2021 Nocturne Cabernet | Yallingup Sub Region $40

 

Ladies and gentlemen, drum roll if you please. Cabernet is back, you know it, you can’t deny it… Suggesting Cabernet is tannic and unyielding while sculling three-year-old Nebbiolo always left me a little bemused. The long and the short of it is that Cabernet, AKA the greatest grape, is a vinous dream and makes some of the world’s best, most accessible wines. Tannin? It’s a thing and a wonderful, cerebral thing at that. Something to be celebrated and embraced. If ya wanna drink cordial, find some overpriced Pinot and marvel at its lack of complexity.

Yallingup is our stomping ground and where the world’s greatest Cabernet and Cabernet blends are being grown! It’s deliciously warm but never hot, with the amazing dual influence of the Indian Ocean and Geographe Bay. For this year’s Cabernets, we have again used our own beloved Sheoak Cabernet and added some of our neighbour’s Merlot from the Simpson property, with which we I am lucky enough to share the amazing valley. There’s also a little splash of their Malbec, too. I’d be lying if I said it was easy, I lost hair, and the hair I had left went grey but we got there in the end… Inheritably elegant is how the ‘21 Cabernets should be described: resolved, gentle tannins with lovely, lightly framed red fruits and great length. It quietly asks you to take another sip, to eat some food to share with friends, lovers, co-workers and some dude named Frank.

We started picking Sheoak Cabernet on 7th April. Underwhelming at first, it’s a wine that’s grown in charm but possibly not stature from the start. Instantly perfumed but lightly framed, the wine spent 12 days on skins with a peak fermentation temperature around 28˚C. The wine was pressed to tank and settled briefly, before being transferred to a combination of new (20%) and two and three-year-old barrels to undergo malolactic fermentation. The wine was only racked once in this time and, after 14 months in oak, was emptied from barrel. At this juncture we decided the final makeup, which is 65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30 % Merlot and 5% Malbec. These wines were then settled together, clarified and bottled.

While perhaps not a classic for the ages, I think - as Paul Keating said - this is the Cabernet we had to have. It has extreme drinkability and is a luncheon dream. Find me a steak-frites, a noisy restaurant and come on in, the water’s fine. A triumph of medium-bodied epicness, this is a wine so drinkable that light cannot penetrate its core.re

– Julian Langworthy