2024 Nocturne SR Cabernets

95 pts
A forward-thinking, medium-bodied Margaret River blend (Cabernet, Malbec, Merlot) from one of Australia's best Cabernet makers.
5.0
Rated 5.0 out of 5 stars
2 Reviews

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Sale price$39.00
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Description

Julian Langworthy is arguably the king of modern Margaret River Cabernet, and his "SR" (Sub-Regional) series is the blueprint for where the region is heading. This isn't the stiff, heavy Cabernet of the past; it is medium-bodied, complex and engineered for serious drinkability.

The 2024 vintage was hot and dry, but you wouldn’t know it from the freshness in the glass. Julian picked his beloved Sheoak vineyard relatively early (April 7th) to lock in tension and perfume before the heat took over. The final blend is 80% Cabernet Sauvignon, with 12% Malbec and 8% Merlot from neighbouring Yallingup sites (Peccavi and Robinson) adding flesh and florals.

It spent 14 months in oak (just 15% new), allowing the fruit to do the talking. It's a picture of Cabernet "accessibility" in a glass. Think open-weave tannins, generous cassis fruit and rich cocoa notes, all wrapped up in a medium-bodied frame. It is darkly coloured, seriously perfumed, and essentially effortless to drink. As Julian puts it: "Come on in, the water is cassis-flavoured and mighty fine."

95 points
"Brilliantly priced so it’s affordable... While very good today with food, this will garner more complexity in time."
- Jane Fulkner (Halliday Wine Companion)

95 points - "The final blend ended up 80% cabernet sauvignon (from the Sheoak vineyard), 12% malbec and 8% merlot sourced from two other vineyards; it’s a good combo, plus brilliantly priced so it’s affordable. A dark red hue. Laden with excellent ripe fruit all spiced up with fennel, tobacco, cedary oak and some toasted nori. The palate is fuller-bodied, expanded by plentiful cocoa tannins. While very good today with food, this will garner more complexity in time." - Jane Faulkner (Halliday Wine Companion)

Customer Reviews

5.0
Rated 5.0 out of 5 stars
Based on 2 reviews
Total 5 star reviews: 2 Total 4 star reviews: 0 Total 3 star reviews: 0 Total 2 star reviews: 0 Total 1 star reviews: 0
2 reviews
  • TQ
    Thomas Q.
    Verified Buyer
    9 months ago
    Reviewing
    2023 Nocturne SR Cabernets
    Rated 5 out of 5 stars
    Excellent value from Julian Langworthy.

    Bold, dark plum fruit, medium tannin. Evidence of oak but not overpowering.

    Definitely on the younger side and will benefit from cellaring

  • HG
    Huw G.
    Verified Buyer
    Wine Knowledge Level Beginner
    3 years ago
    Wine Knowledge Level Beginner
    Reviewing
    2022 Nocturne SR Cabernets
    Rated 5 out of 5 stars
    very nice

    This wine is very nice, thank you.

This wine tastes of the future, or at least a future that I want to be part of—one where medium-bodied wines of great complexity and huge drinkability are the norm. Cabernets, simply put, are just the most rewarding wines there are to drink.

Yallingup is our stomping ground, and where the world’s greatest varietal 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. In this SR7 Cabernets, we have used our own beloved Sheoak Cabernet, Merlot from Peccavi Vineyard and Malbec from the Robinson property, with which we’re lucky enough to share the amazing valley.
The 2024 vintage, as previously suggested, was tricky. From our POV, it was hot and dry, but the Cabernets from it are far from it. Accessibility would be the hallmark of the season for me; open weave, generous fruit, huge drinkability and appeal.

We started picking Sheoak Cabernet on 7th April, relatively early for this vineyard, but that probably makes sense given the season’s heat. Darkly coloured and quite tense for this vineyard, it showed an abundance of ripe cocoa-laden tannins from the outset. Instantly perfumed and richly coloured, the wine spent 12 days on skins with a peak fermentation temperature of around 26°C. The wine was then pressed to tank and settled briefly before being transferred to a combination of new (15%), two- and three-year-old barrels to undergo malolactic fermentation. The wine was racked only once during this time and, after 14 months in oak, was emptied from barrel. At this juncture, we decided the final makeup which is 80% Cabernet Sauvignon, 12% Malbec and 8% Merlot. These wines were then settled together, clarified and bottled.

Medium-bodied Cabernet and Cabernet blends are the future…. Ever were, always will be. Come on in, the water is cassis-flavoured and mighty fine.

– Julian Langworthy

Price Bracket $31 to $40
Type Red
Body Medium Bodied
Variety Cabernet Sauvignon
Country Australia
Region Margaret River
Australian State WA
Reviewed By Halliday Wine Companion
Critic Score 95
Alcohol 14%
Size 750ml
Vintage 2024
Closure Screw Cap

Nocturne Wines

Nocturne is the personal side label of highly decorated Margaret River winemaker Julian Langworthy.

Julian has won just about everything there is to win in Australian wine, having taken out Winemaker of the Year for the 2019 Halliday Wine Companion, the 2016 Jimmy Watson Memorial Trophy at Royal Melbourne in the space of just a couple of years.

The Nocturne wines are all small production with Jules focusing on quality rather than quantity in this range.

The fruit is procured through Julian's connections with local growers developed over his lifetime in the Margaret River region. If you're looking for hidden gems of Margaret River, the Nocturne wines are it.

Winemaker Julian Langworthy Nocturne

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