2006 Noon Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon, Langhorne Creek, S.Australia

Noon

Langhorne Creek

Langhorne Creek is part of the greater Fleurieu zone south of Adelaide, along with McLaren Vale. First identified in 1850 the Langhorne Creek region lies on the edge of Lake Alexandrine, into which the Bremer River flows, its sandy alluvial floodplain providing rich pastures. 

Wines were being made by the 1870s and some of Shiraz and Cabernet Sauvignon vines planted in 1892 are still cropping today. After the fortifieds came the dry reds of the ‘60s, celebrated by a young German winemaker Wolf Blass. One of Australia’s first irrigation schemes kept the ticking until salinity levels (now at 1560 ppm) forced the authorities to allow water to be taken directly from the Lake. This triggered a tide of corporates to rush to the area during the 1990s, growing the area from 440 to 6400ha and constructing irrigation pipelines of up to 100km long to feed their vines; the fruit of which is then blended away anonymously. There are up to ten privately-owned estates waving the Langhorne Creek banner.

The feeding frenzy can only last so long as Lake Alexandrina’s levels are dropping fast. For so long the Lake’s presence has been a great climate moderator, providing a constant breeze, maintaining a high relative humidity (60%) & reducing the risk of frost. Were it to dry up viticulture would probably be unfeasible.

Cabernet Sauvignon is the key grape, ripening well in the sandy soils and benefiting from the notable daily diurnal temperature shift. The Langhorne Creek style is a crunchy rich blackcurrant fruit profile with fine tannins and surprising elegance. Verdelho and Shiraz are also impressive.

Recommended Producers

Bremerton and Noon are arguably the regions top producers

Cabernet Sauvignon

The most famous red wine grape in the world and one of the most widely planted.

It is adaptable to a wide range of soils, although it performs particularly well on well-drained, low-fertile soils. It has small, dusty, black-blue berries with thick skins that produce deeply coloured, full-bodied wines with notable tannins. Its spiritual home is the Médoc and Graves regions of Bordeaux where it thrives on the well-drained gravel-rich soils producing tannic wines with piercing blackcurrant fruits that develop complex cedarwood and cigar box nuances when fully mature.

The grape is widely planted in California where Cabernet Sauvignon based wines are distinguished by their rich mixture of cassis, mint, eucalyptus and vanilla oak. It is planted across Australia and with particular success in Coonawarra where it is suited to the famed Terra Rossa soil. In Italy barrique aged Cabernet Sauvignon is a key component in Super Tuscans such as Tignanello and Sassicaia, either on its own or as part of a blend with Sangiovese.