2024 Nocturne Yallingup SR Cabernets

A refined, mid weighted Cabernets lined with a chorus of red fruit.

A blend of 69% Cabernet Sauvignon, 21% Merlot and 10% Malbec. Impenetrable pitch black heart with a deep dark red black tinged hue. Elevated red to dark currant, violet and ripe mulberry scents are dished up by the nose followed by some vanillin cedar, subtle earthy tobacco and fresh bay leaf notes. Mid weighted the palate is lined with a chorus of red currant and mulberry fruits which are quite juicy in their feel. Fresh underlying acidity and grainy, structured tannins lend tension. Spicy cedar, dusty earth, subtle tobacco and infusions of bay leaf the undercard. Finishes long and refined.
Drink over the next 8-10 years.
Alc. 14%

Other Reviews….
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. Drink by 2040.
95 Points
Jane Faulkner - James Halliday’s Australian 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. Drink 2027-2038+
95 Points
Gary Walsh – The Wine Front