  This week is a story of mix-ups. Our previous shipment from Nocturne failed to materialise as Julian and Alana’s warehouse sent the wrong wine to an international trade customer, rendering our order a non-starter and this is the reason we haven’t seen Nocturne for several years. Back home, Julian is something of a superstar after winning the Jimmy Watson Memorial Trophy for the ’14 Deep Woods Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon and Ray Jordan's Winemaker of the Year. He’s certainly passionate about producing regionally distinctive wines, which clearly shows at both labels. Julian is the Chief Winemaker & General Manager at one of Margaret Rivers' top estates, Deep Woods. Under his leadership, the winemaking team has continued to refine and explore the Deep Woods' style, culminating in more than 60 trophies and 200 gold medals awarded across major national and international wine shows. Last year, their Reserve Chardonnay received 98-points from team James Suckling. And additionally, received Number One Australian Wine for 2022 by team Suckling. Today, we focus on Julian’s ‘solo’ venture, Nocturne which is our second release. Similarly, producing single-vineyard along with sub-regional wines from exceptional sites in Margaret River. This is the region where Julian grew up and where he’s honed his winemaking skills. Julian is best placed to describe his wines which he has done with a great sense of humour.
 Julian Langworthy introduces the latest Nocturne collection…"These wines are so mouth-wateringly good it will make your pants tight, but alas they remain in tiny allocations." “Number 7. Lucky for some, especially if you’re the seventh son or need a break from creating the world but possibly more a beacon for change.The world has unquestionably changed and so has Nocturne. After six vintages Alana and I have parted ways on our dream wine project and in this edition, I go it alone. Now, a man after my own heart - with a build and a hairstyle I’m starting to emulate and a shared penchant for wine that comes in magnums - once said: “To improve is to change: to be perfect is to change often.” Yep, that was my boy, Winston Churchill. It’s definitely been a change and I’d like to think the wines have improved. Nocturne comprises two wine ranges: the Single-Vineyard or ‘SV’ range; and the Sub-Regional (‘SR’) range. Our SV Sheoak Cabernet Sauvignon and SV Forrest Vineyard Chardonnay are, as ever, awesomely epic expressions of the best sites in Margaret River, albeit in the Chardonnay’s case a new site selection. These wines are so mouth-wateringly good it will make your pants tight, but alas they remain in tiny allocations. But let’s get to the business at hand: The SR range or SR4 if you will. Well, it’s pretty fkn awesome this year and there is actually possibly enough that it might last till Christmas. This is a very good thing as rosé goes with turkey like it goes with life. (And it’s possibly why I am festively plump.) Anyway, this range of wines, while ever evolving, runs a fine line between epic and awesome and I would be happy to fall either way. So, if the theme for this year’s Nocturne release is change, they are also very, very cool. The SR Chardonnay and both SV wines this year are from 2021, which was fairly cool and quite wet in parts. The hallmark of this growing season is an almost thoughtful elegance and an acid structure that frames and lifts these wines to some amazing heights. I like wines, the kind where you don’t notice you’ve finished the bottle and feel compelled to order another. This kinda wine is understated cool; it could be a thing.”  2021 Nocturne Single Vineyard ChardonnayJulian Langworthy "So in keeping with change this year sees a new site for Nocturne’s SV Chardonnay. The Forrest Vineyard in central Willyabrup. My first and devastatingly brutal love, the tiny Tassel Park vineyard was wiped out in 2021 and in 2022 but hope springs eternal and I have learnt to love again. This pilot wine from this new site is pretty darn cool and whilst a change a very exciting one. Only 128 six packs made, I drank a few of them too. The fruit is of course from a single site, the Forrest Vineyard in the Willyabrup sub-region of Margaret River. Moreover this wine is from a tiny ridge section from within the middle of this vineyard selectively picked for this wine. Planted to the classic WA Gin Gin clone it’s a wine of unbelievable natural acid presence and structural drive. The vineyard is otherwise largely flat and quite close to the coast some 3kms only and in common with Tassel Park is planted on deep silver-grey sands. The picking date is generally relatively early in the chardonnay season given the vineyard's low yielding nature. The grapes were handpicked on 19th of February; and whole bunch-pressed directly to new, one and two-year-old puncheons, with no settling or fining processes. This juice was then carefully monitored and spontaneous fermentation kicked off on day four after pressing. After a four-week ferment the wine remained on gross lees unsulphured until August of that year. In December the wine was emptied from barrel, settled, filtered and bottled. This is an exciting site that holds amazing acid structure and lovely al dente tannin. It needs some time to truly unfurl, unfold, and show its true colours but one sniff will show that it has the character that Nocturne’s SV Chardys are famous for. Flint, funk, just-ripe stone fruit, grilled limes and hope… In hope that change is always to grow and to hopefully improve. Get around this acid laden baby it’s a bright new future out there." £33.95 per bottle Special Offer £28.95 per bottle Also available under bond £125.00 per case (6x75cl) "Ladies and gentlemen, drum roll if you please. Cabernet is back... If ya wanna drink cordial, find some overpriced Pinot and marvel at its lack of complexity." 2021 Nocturne Single Vineyard Cabernet SauvignonJulian Langworthy "Ladies and gentlemen, drum roll if you please. Cabernet is back, you know it, you can’t deny it… Suggesting Cabernet is tannic and unyielding while sculling three-year-old Nebbiolo always left me a little bemused. The long and the short of it is that Cabernet, AKA the greatest grape, is a vinous dream and makes some of the world’s best, most accessible wines. Tannin? It’s a thing and a wonderful, cerebral thing at that. Something to be celebrated and embraced. If ya wanna drink cordial, find some overpriced Pinot and marvel at its lack of complexity. 2021, I’d be lying if I said it was easy, I lost hair, and the hair I had left went grey but we got there in the end… Due almost entirely to the inherent quality of the Sheoak vineyard. Inheritably elegant is how this ‘21 Cabernet Sauvignon should be described: resolved, gentle tannins with lovely, lightly framed red fruits and great length. We started picking Sheoak Cabernet on 7th April. Underwhelming at first, it’s a wine that’s grown in charm but possibly not stature from the start. Instantly perfumed but lightly framed, the wine spent 12 days on skins with a peak fermentation temperature around 28˚C. The wine was pressed to tank and settled briefly, before being transferred to a combination of new (30%) and two and three-year-old barrels to undergo malolactic fermentation. The wine was only racked once in this time and, after 16 months in oak, was emptied from barrel. 100% Cabernet from 100% this very cool site. The Sheoak vineyard makes expressive, medium-bodied, silky structured wines. More red fruit in spectrum with crunchy cranberry characters framing the high notes of cassis and the suggestion of cedar like oak this is a very fine boned release of the Nocturne SV." £33.95 per bottle Special Offer £28.95 per bottle Also available under bond £125.00 per case (6x75cl)  "Chardonnay is what Jesus made when he turned water into wine; it’s also why we winemakers have a God complex.” 2021 Nocturne Sub Regional ChardonnayJulian Langworthy “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 26th 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.” £24.00 per bottle Special Offer £20.50 per bottle Also available under bond £83.00 per case (6x75cl)   2019 Nocturne Sub Regional CabernetsThe SR Cabernets is a welcome addition to the Nocturne family. It's made as a fleshier, more slurpable style of Margaret River Cabernet blend, built for drinking while you wait for the excellent Nocturne Single Vineyard Cabernet to mature. The fruit comes from Yallingup, the Margaret River sub-region that Julian and Alana believe makes some of the best Cabernet blends in the world. The Cabernet component comes from their beloved Sheoak vineyard (the source of their SV Cabernet) and it's blended with 13% Merlot from the neighbouring vineyard farmed by the Simpsons. It's a top value Cabernet blend from this dynamic duo. Easy drinking at a great price. Gary Walsh, The Wine Front "Cassis and blueberry, baking spices, bay leaf and dark mint chocolate, old cupboards dusted with star anise, someone runs past with Dencorub on their buttocks, leaving just a whiff as they go. Medium-bodied, distinctly cool and ‘mineral’ feel to it, but warmed by spice and blue fruits, raspberry coulis, tannin has an emery board feel, lively, bright and long to close. All the spice, precision and charm of a cool vintage, and a lovely thing it is. Drinks beautifully." £24.00 per bottle Special Offer £20.50 per bottle Also available under bond £83.00 per case (6x75cl)
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