Matthew Jukes 100 Best Australian Wines 2023/24 - Winery of the Year!

We are absolutely thrilled that Cherubino has been selected as Best Winery of the Year in the Matthew Jukes 100 Best Australian Wines!

‘I am honoured and privileged to announce that Cherubino is the 100 Best Australian Wines Winery of the Year 2023/24. With eleven Larry Cherubino wines featured in this Report, as well as three more under the Robert Oatley label for whom Larry consults, it is no surprise that Larry and his teams of winemakers and viticulturalists have picked up this gong. I have known Larry for a quarter of a century, and very few people in our industry have a work ethic like his. His hunger for knowledge and understanding of the world’s great wines fires his imagination and palate to reach new heights with his own wines every year. This year, he has organized distribution in the UK for more of his wines than ever before, so it is perfect timing for me to talk about the man himself and sing about these wines because more people than ever have the chance to taste them.’

 

2022 LAISSEZ FAIRE FIELD BLEND. This year, I have not enjoyed any complex white blend more than this wine. I chase this style because I love it, with Northern Eastern Italy being  a hotspot (or should that be a coolspot for me). That is not to say that everyone likes this style of wine - they are demanding, often confusing, and require commitment). I awarded the 2022 Field Blend a massive 19/20 score in my notes, and this wine, along with the immense roll-call of others, was responsible for bringing the Winery of the Year award to Cherubino. The Laissez Faire wine label is a hands-off, ‘let it be’ collection, and these wines are among the most intellectually pleasing and deeply rewarding in the country. Made from Pinot Blanc, Gewurztraminer, Riesling, Pinot Grigio and Sauvignon Gris and seeing some skin contact and six months in French oak, this wine is total class. It reminds me of the great wines from Cantina Terlano, but just a bit more complex! This is a composed wine, with each variety giving its anti-fruit and fruit notes, and the combination of all of these elements is incredible. 2022 LAISSEZ FAIRE FOUDRE PEMBERTON PINOT NOIR  shows that while we all know that Larry Cherubino is a dab hand with Chardonnay and Cabernet, as well as countless other varieties, he can also work his magic with the most fickle red grape of all, Pinot Noir. 2022 Foudre is blessed with gentle rose and raspberry fruit, and this unhurried wine shows delicious balance thanks to Italianate acidity, eight months in French oak foudres and pinpoint accurate balance. This is not a rich, dark style but a light-hearted, refreshing, resonant style, and it sits shoulder to shoulder with some of the more recognised Pinots from Victoria and Tassie in this Report. The Riesling is the most decorated Laissez Faire wine in the history of 100 Best. 2022 LAISSEZ FAIRE RIESLING is a cracker, but it is a variation on a theme. Classy, demure and gentle for the first two or three seconds, and the rest of the experience is a mineral-drenched and unremittingly challenging on account of the intensity of rapier-sharp acidity. This makes 2022 Laissez Faire Riesling the vintage with the most potential I have tasted, so be sure to grab a case and settle in for a lovely long ride.

 

2020 CHERUBINO OVALE GINGIN CHARDONNAY With eleven Cherubino wines featured in this Report and three under the Robert Oatley label for whom Larry consults, it is absolutely no surprise that Larry and his various team of winemakers and viticulturalists have picked up the Winery of the Year Award! I felt like Paul Hardcastle when I tasted the entire range earlier this year. I usually find myself willing wines to break out of 17/20 or 18/20 ruts. With Larry’s  celestial suite of wines, it was a case of trying to find one that didn't clock up a 19. I take my hat off to the dedication, perseverance, palate acumen and will to win that all combine to create the enigma that is Mr Cherubino. I suggest you grab a huge shopping trolley and load up with every one of his wines in this Report because they will tell you more about the man than a face-to-face meeting because he is a shy chap who hides behind a Hollywood grin and a ludicrous mop of jet black hair.

 

So here we go. Now that Larry has finally managed to bring a plentiful selection of his wines to the UK, I can let fly with my thoughts. My featured Chardonnay shines a spotlight on sub-regional excellence, and with sensitive oak and the merest hint of malolactic fermentation, it sings its origins. There is intensity here and structure too, and these imposing traits are marshalled by profound acidity and freshness. I wrote ‘Grand Cru’ in my tasting notes, and while marvelling at the scale and profondeur, I found other storylines playing out across my palate. Stony hints, discreet succulents, wilder herbs than one finds in the UK and wilder florals too - there is a large cast of players here and it makes for expansive tasting. I suggest checking into this flavour first, and when your taste buds have acclimatised, move on to 2021 CHERUBINO MARGARET RIVER CHARDONNAY Larry calls this the ‘best’  Chardonnay  in his range, but his is not a vertical suite of wines. Each has its occasion, its audience and its backdrop. Made from parcels of Karridale and Wilyabrup fruit, this is an utterly sensational wine with fruit so clean and bright it takes your eye off the sheer depth of  flavour. It is so long and focused it draws you along at its pace, and with not once glance over its shoulder, one sideways flick, one eyelid flutter, you call in and follow. You cannot be in a crowded room or a hectic space to fully appreciate the convolutions in this wine. So find a place, a time and a companion and allow yourself some moments of anticipation - it will rise to any  occasion and reward all who participate in its performance.

 

2022 CHERUBINO PEMBERTON SAUVIGNON BLANC slides southeast from Margaret River to a jewel in the Cherubino crown, Pemberton. Here we find one of only a handful of white wines employing the Sauvignon Blanc variety in this Report. Green and silky, like a slippery vinous tree snake, it curls around your taste buds and then bites down with acid fangs. Coming from a block in the Channybearup Vineyard, which was planted in 1996, it sees nothing more than four months in French oak in the winery before it slithers off into a bottle. While it needs age and certainly reflects many of the traits of top white Graves, it doesn't feel weighty or oily on the palate. In this regard, it sits atop the oak-augmented Sauvignon tree, tense, poised and ready to strike; a little like La Mission on a mission.

 

The following three wines are all Cabernets from Larry’s beloved Frankland River region, and I have listed them in ascending order of price, intensity and age-worthiness. 2018 CHERUBINO OVALE CABERNET SAUVIGNON CLONAL SELECTION seems to me to exhibit far more style and grace than it ought to at this price. There is a beautiful volume of cassis fruit here, and skin tannins rake the palate rhythmically as the fruit glides past. Fleshy blue and black fruit notes bring a level of exoticism, which is countered by cooling herbal and mint leaf hints. This is a phenomenal introduction to elite Frankland Cabernet, and it has started to drink well. If you love Napa or Bolgheri Cabs, this will seem like an elegant fruit-forward wine, given It is not too oak-imprinted, and in terms of value, it soars above any examples I can think of from both regions. 2019 CHERUBINO FRANKLAND RIVER CABERNET SAUVIGNON pushes Larry’s Frankland River Cabernet template into a wholly different level of excellence. The fruit is so resonant and bright it is shocking, and this gloriously luxurious flavour attack is underpinned by brutal, singular minerality that is at once awe-inspiring and not a little malevolent. The back end is sour, dense, structured, ripe, cool, powerful, muscular and brittle, arming this wine for a the long run. It is like an intergalactic excavator has scooped up a large tract of Saint-Estephe and deposited it among the karri trees in the southwest corner of Western Australia. Finally, at least for this entry (read on for more Larry wines) 2019 CHERUBINO BUDWORTH CABERNET SAUVIGNON  This was the wine that damn near spoilt the Nineteen track playing in my head. Sappy, more tannin and more blunt than the other two Cabs, this is a muscular wine that craves cellar time, but it is already clear that it is prodigious with dreams of greatness. Whether this beautifully complex flavour will add the half point needed to reach a perfect score in years to come is irrelevant because Riversdale Vineyard clearly has a stash of twenties buried in its soil, and they will blossom when they are good and ready.

 

2020 APOSTROPHE POSSESSIVE REDS’ Two remaining wines in the Cherubino portfolio sit outside of the other entries in this Report, and they welcome us to the Grenache & Friends chapter of the 100 Best. These are both lovely, gentle, easy-drinking wines that are centred on Southern French red varieties, and while they are not serious, long-loved or contemplative wines, they perform a vital function, and that is to spread vinous joy at all times and in all places 365 days a year. Apostrophe is a 42% Counoise, 32% Grenache and 26% Shiraz that see s a short spell in a new and used oak barrels. For a diminutive fellow, it packs a spicy punch with cracked pepper, cinnamon, liquorice root, and fertile earth notes underpinning a gossamer-smooth plum and cherry chassis. Clean, bright, easy and refreshing, this futuristic red works as well chilled with spicy food as it does at normal temperature with wintry fare. The skill, as is  always the case, is in the blend. I cannot see any welds holding this wine together, and that is because there are none. The three grapes enjoy each other’s company and harmonise as if it were second nature. This is the sort of red wine that should be featured in every gastro-pub in the land, while 2021 AD HOC MIDDLE OF EVERYWHERE SHIRAZ ramps up the drama but still to confirm to type. Middle of Everywhere Shiraz has more in common with a fun-loving Pinot or free-rolling Gamay than with an everyday Shiraz. If I were to taste this wine blind, I would find it hard to place it in a Shiraz box despite the telltale perfume because it is so lithe, nubile and tactile. In place of tannin, raspy mineral tones refresh the palate and make the mouth water. This is another wine with one foot in the future. It appears to welcome a younger crowd and one who might not have a lexicon of grape varieties hanging around in the back of their brain. This tribe is after stylish labels, dynamic flavours and wines that are multi-skilled when it comes to food pairing. The Ad Hoc brand is well placed to capitalise on this movement because, behind the eye-catching artwork, the flavours of this wine are already 100% accurate.

 

We extend our heartfelt gratitude to Matthew Jukes for always championing Australian wines, we are truly honoured to have received this recognition. A special thanks goes to our amazing viticultural and winemaking teams for their unwavering commitment to excellence.