2022 Nocturne ‘SR’ Cabernets

Ladies and Gentlemen… drum roll if you please, Cabernet is back, you know it you and can’t deny it …. Suggesting Cabernet is tannic and unyielding whilst sculling three-year-old Nebbiolo always left me a little bemused. The long and the short of it, Cabernet AKA “the Greatest Grape” is a vinous dream and some of the world best most accessible wines… Tannin it’s a thing and wonderful cerebral thing. 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! Its deliciously warm, but never hot, with the amazing dual influence of the Indian Ocean and Geographe Bay. In this SR5 Cabernets, we have used our own beloved Sheoak Cabernet and added some of our neighbour’s Merlot and Malbec from the Simpson property that we are lucky enough to share the amazing valley with. 

The 2022 vintage is, whilst again having next to no fruit is a Cassis flavoured Cabernet Triumph.  Warm early, but mild late in the season the best wines are on the powerful side for Margaret River, yet are things of great beauty early. In the Yallingup Hills we enjoyed a lovely  

We commenced picking Sheoak Cabernet on the 14th of April relatively late given the heat in the season.  Darkly coloured, quite tense for this vineyard, it showed an abundance of ripe coco 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 degrees C.  The wine was pressed to tank and settled briefly before being transferred to a combination of new (25%) and two & three-year-old barrels to undergo malolactic fermentation. The wine was racked only once in this time and, after 14 months in oak, was emptied from barrel. At this juncture, we decided the final makeup, which is 69% Cabernet Sauvignon 31 % Merlot and 10% Malbec. These wines were then settled together clarified and bottled.

This expression of a cabernet blend is just right.   Epic drinkability, yet huge complexity and verve. If Earnest Hemmingway was still alive, he’d be pouring this in by the bucketful. A Cassis laden dream if you will. – Julian Langworthy