2023 Nocturne ‘SR’ Chardonnay

2023, a vintage of Epicness. It was goldilocks personified and you all know what goldilocks liked, she liked things just right. It was cool yet sunny, had great spring rain but lovely long largely dry growing season. As such I it would be amiss if the wine didnt mirror this amazing season but fortunately it does, pretty sure Goldilocks was a 10 which is pretty much how I rate this wine and the Season. In fact it might be the best ever. Time will tell, but in the 24 Vintages I have done in Australia I cant think of another as effortless and awesome. Sometimes things just go right and here it is, bask in the glory and fill the cellar.

This wine is a combination of three vineyards all epic in their own kinda way…. Grace & White,  Wilson’s and Tassell Road. Blending this wine was very exciting I must say it’s a true honour and pleasure to have such amazing fruit to work with and showcase the best Margaret River has to offer.

The season was moderate in terms of picking dates. But as always, these vineyards were some of the last being harvested between the 7th  and 11th of march. Picking decision are never easy with Chardonnay but this year it seemed we had time. Flavours where intense but the ripening didn’t race and snatching fruit at its zenith seemed a little easier than it can be.

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 three after pressing. After a four-week ferment the wine remained on gross lees unsulphured until September of that year. In November it was emptied from barrel, settled, filtered and bottled.

This wine is, unsurprisingly, epic. In fact, I think this is easily the most righteous SR chardonnay made to date.  It’s pale green, smells of white stone fruits and gun flint and sea breeze. Its more restrained perhaps than the traditional stylings of Margaret River but I think its all the better for it … understated awesomeness if you will. As with every Nocturne wine the texture and flavour to die for impeccably framed by sherbert like acidity and fine 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

The 2023 SR Yallingup Cabernet Sauvignon is pure, fine and seamless, with a flow of chalky tannins that encase the detailed core of fruit. It’s a quiet wine but a scintillatingly beautiful one at that. I detect blood orange and raspberry pip, coffee grounds and raw cocoa. 2023 was a ripping vintage in Western Australia, and this wine is a poster child for the year that was. 94 points. Erin Larkin, The Wine Advocate Nov 2024