2021 Nocturne ‘SR’ Chardonnay

Nocturne SR Chardonnay is grown in Treeton. It’s a weird little area full of hillbillies, dairy cows and interestingly, some great Chardonnay vineyards. Cold at night, warm in the day with deep silver-grey sands that we think produce special Chardonnay. This wine is a combination of two awesome Treeton vineyards: Grace & White and Victory Point.
OK, maybe you will be happy to hear it if you’re super sadistic but ‘21 was tricky, especially for Chardonnay. It rained and rained, and it seemed to rain some more.  We had super high acidities that didn’t know when to quit. As such, botrytis ate more grapes than I did, which is unusual for god’s own country of Margaret River. While avoiding the rain we picked these grapes quite early for the season and the region on 25th and 26^th February, some six weeks earlier than 2019!
The grapes were harvested by hand and whole bunch-pressed directly to new, one- and two-year-old puncheons, with a smattering of barriques for good measure. We did no settling or fining. This juice was then very carefully neglected and allowed to undergo spontaneous fermentation, which kicked off on day five after pressing. After a four-week ferment the wine remained on gross lees unsulphured until August of that year. In November it was emptied from barrel, settled, filtered and bottled.
This wine is, unsurprisingly, super cool yet different. It’s pale green, smells of white stone fruits and resolved sulphide and something non-Margaret Riveresque – something distinctly international on the nose. Maybe it’s season, maybe it’s terroir but it’s pretty fkn cool. As with every Nocturne wine the texture and flavour are to die for, impeccably framed by hallmark 2021 acidity and al dente phenolic structure.  Chardonnay is what Jesus made when he turned water into wine; it’s also why we winemakers have a God complex. – Julian Langworthy, Nocturne