Writing tasting notes sux, there are only so many nuances of citrus blossom and elderberry that I can come up with. Truth be told, I taste wine in shapes more than in flavours. But shapes are hard to write about. Perhaps I need to master AI and get it to generate pictures of my loosely formed thoughts, but I fear that the result would all resemble a Bromley painting for all the wines that I liked. However, here we are, this is the sum of my thoughts of the release that is.

So it is, as always, a tricky time in the world but that seems like a constant. The rise of the far right, fuel prices, a war in Syria, take your pick. Another constant is the seasons and the rhythm of the wine world, this in contrast is a thing of great beauty and solace. Hope springs eternal in each turn of the grape growing and wine making cycle. Now you might have heard even possibly from me when I am feeling less sunny, that the wine industry is in the toilet, young people are not drinking wine as did their forebears, the Baby Boomers have spent all the generational wealth, driving up inflation and are now too old to buy more wine…. I think I’m digressing. Regardless I have decided, I don’t care and for a range of reasons, but the main factor is wine is the most mysterious and beautifully complex of beverages. There is nothing that speaks to a sense of place or a person or to an age more eloquently and completely. As such balance will return and as the great wine advocate, Sam Neill once said “No intelligent man wears a moustache voluntarily”

2025: Well, it was a bit of a blur—a good blur, but a blur nonetheless. I think you remember the tough vintages the most; it’s just human nature, tribulation and all that shit. There was however, very little tribulation, and while it was not a cool vintage, it kinda behaved that way. While I consider myself yet young, I really must start to keep some notes on vintage while I drive around the state just to generally prompt me on my slide to repeating my stories on an endless loop. Lovely fine wines, great expression and grace. Is it my favourite ever? No, but it is very very good.

As you know, Nocturne comprises two wine ranges: the Single-Vineyard or SV range and the Sub-Regional or SR range. Our SV Sheoak Cabernet and SV Forrest and Wilson Chardonnays remain, as ever, awesomely epic expressions of the best sites in Margaret River.

SR8 – Eight vintages into the Sub-Regional range. Lucky number 8 apparently that’s a thing, lucky these wines are so delicious, light cannot penetrate their core.

SV11– Limited as ever and 100% allocated. Allocations have gotten very tight. For the last three vintages, we have had to implement a new system for our mailing list, looking after our longest-standing and best customers for these wines. If you get a letter, you know who you are; if you don’t get the letter, please still make a request on your online order form—if there is any allocated stock not picked up, it will be first in, best dressed.