Nocturne SR Cabernets 2024

SPECIAL VALUE - 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. (95) JANE FAULKNER, Halliday Wine Companion

From the Sheoak vineyard in Yallingup and apparently picked on the same date as the 2023, which is interesting given the hot dry vintage. 25% new oak here. I tasted this about a month ago, and again now, so I’ve probably got a handle on it. Also, the bottle is way too heavy, although I get that plenty of love has gone on to the bottle.

Blueberry and black fruit, ground spice, shag tobacco, violet, chocolate and menthol. Medium to full-bodied, kind of rustic in its presentation of tannin, though they feel deep and nutritious in a way, and vaguely Italianate, with a sort of Sagrantino thickness. It’s also fresh and quite juicy, a Marasca cherry sourness, blackcurrant, again lots of tannin and chew with an earthy thunder closing out a finish of excellent length. It’s a toss up between 94+ and 95 points, but you know, there’s a certain charismatic charm here that gets me over the line. (95) GARY WALSH, The Wine Front

Led by the hugely talented Julian Langworthy, Nocturne has become one of the most exciting names in Margaret River. The SR Cabernet is everything people love about modern Margaret River Cabernet — lush, juicy and immediately appealing, but still carrying the structure and detail that give the region its reputation. Precision winemaking with plenty of personality.