The 2021 vintage in the Porongurup Wine Region was characterised by an excellent growing season, with rain prior to vintage followed by warm ripening conditions yielding average crop levels of long-lived elegant white wines and outstanding red wines.
Budburst was reasonably earlier than average, but with the very good late spring rain, the soil moisture levels filled and vine growth slowed slightly helping built the regional complexity in the fruit.
“The mild growing conditions through summer, along with our usual rigorous vineyard and canopy management put us in a very good position at the end of January,” explained Castle Rock Estate winegrower, Rob Diletti.
Rain in the region in mid-February was too early to create any issues, however there was a constant drizzle during the first two weeks of March which created some issues leading into harvest. “Due to this rain, we spent more time in the vineyard dropping any botrytis effected fruit. This ensured that all the grapes coming into the winery were pristine.”
“This rain meant we harvested slightly earlier than usual, and sure enough, just as we finished picking, the rain stopped.”
The Riesling and the Chardonnay are looking fantastic, albeit requiring some more finesse in the winery. They will tend to be on the elegant side and should age particularly well; a feature of the wines from Castle Rock Estate.”
After this rain, there was two weeks of warm weather, ensuring the red varieties ripened well, if not all at once.
“The fruit coming through the winery was lovely. The Pinot Noir and Shiraz is excellent, with the yields fairly average across the region.
“This year has allowed us to broaden our Riesling collection, with the addition of a couple of new styles. These are new styles that have been in the planning stages for a number of years, so it is exciting to see these wines in bottle.”
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Castle Rock Estate is nestled on the eastern slopes of the Porongurup Mountain and is named after a prominent nearby granite landmark. The vineyard, which sits in Great Southern’s sub region Porongurup, has a cool and elevated northerly aspect, resulting in intensely flavoured wines, particularly Riesling, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. The vineyard was established in 1983 by Angelo and Wendy Diletti and is now run by their son Rob. Their 200-tonne winery was constructed in 2000 and in 2015 Rob Diletti was named Wine Companion Winemaker of the Year. He was a finalist in the 2019 Gourmet Traveller Wine Magazine Winemaker of the Year awards.
Castle Rock Estate new Riesling & Pinot Noir released
Castle Rock Estate has recently released its new vintage 2019 Castle Rock Estate ‘Porongurup’ Riesling ($25) along with the 2018 Castle Rock Estate ‘Porongurup’ Pinot Noir ($34).
Castle Rock Estate has a long-established relationship and success with Riesling. The new 2019 Castle Rock Estate ‘Porongurup’ Riesling is one of three Rieslings in the current range.
The Castle Rock Estate Rieslings are some of the best examples from Western Australia. The wines show Great Southern’s ability to produce Riesling that competes with any Australian Riesling in terms of quality and longevity.
“Australian Riesling is obviously more than just Eden and Clare Valley,” said owner and winemaker Rob Diletti. “This is what makes Australian winegrowing so exciting; you only need to look at the Rieslings from Frankland River, Tasmania and Mudgee to see the quality and diversity. Porongurup competes with the best of them.
“We are aiming to produce Riesling with a tightly wound structure enveloped by the stunning regional lime juice fruit characters. The core steely natural acidity creates this structure which is a hallmark of Castle Rock Rieslings. These are wines that will drink beautifully over the long term, developing a lovely silky mature texture at 15 to 20 years.”
“Really good Pinot Noir will come from cool climate vineyards and be grown on older vines at low yields. These characteristics of premium Pinot Noir will create balance, intensity and concentration of flavour. We are in a good position to have all these three components.
“The 2018 vintage was one of the great ones,” explained Rob. “The dry and mild season produced fruit with gorgeous natural acidity and excellent fruit purity.”
While Great Southern is Australia’s largest winegrowing region, the Porongurup sub-region is a compact, unique area with cool climate vineyards dating back to the mid 1970s with the Castle Rock Estate vines planted in 1983.
2019 Castle Rock Estate Riesling (Porongurup region) $25.00
2017 Castle Rock Estate Pinot Noir (Porongurup region) $34.00
Gold Medal, 2019 Perth Royal Wine Awards
Distribution:
The Castle Rock Estate wines are distributed in NSW by IS Wine, in Victoria by Wholesale Wine Services and in WA by Fine Wine Wholesalers. The wines are also available online at www.castlerockestate.com.au
For further information and images please contact:
David Cumming at Define Wine Marketing & Communications on 0414 736 342 or [email protected]
Rob Diletti, Winemaker at Castle Rock on 0447 531 035 or [email protected]
Castle Rock Estate is nestled on the eastern slopes of the Porongurup Mountain and is named after a prominent nearby landmark. The vineyard, which sits in Great Southern’s sub region Porongurup, has a cool and elevated northerly aspect, resulting in intensely flavoured wines, particularly Riesling, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. The vineyard was established in 1983 by Angelo and Wendy Diletti and is now run by their son Rob. Their 200 tonne winery was constructed in 2000 and in 2015 Rob Diletti was named Wine Companion Winemaker of the Year. He was a finalist in the 2019 Gourmet Traveller Wine Magazine Winemaker of the Year awards.
Castle Rock Estate highlights the potential of Great Southern
Castle Rock Estate has released its new vintage 2019 Castle Rock Estate ‘Skywalk’ Riesling ($20) along with the 2017 Castle Rock Estate Shiraz ($30), both from the Porongurup sub region of Western Australia’s Great Southern.
Gourmet Traveller Wine Magazine Winemaker of the Year finalist and Castle Rock Estate owner and winemaker Rob Diletti admits that the Porongurup region is still being discovered by wine drinkers. “It’s varieties such as Riesling and Shiraz that will help propel Great Southern’s reputation as a world class wine producing region.”
“The 2019 vintage was one of the toughest, with a dry 12 months and then rain in the lead up to harvest. The success really came down to good vineyard management, ensuring we got through relatively unscathed,” explained Rob. While the quality of grapes was good, the yields were around 40 per cent lower than average.
“We aim to produce Riesling with fruit purity, finesse and balance; wines that reflect this unique Australian region.
“We make over a dozen Rieslings from Great Southern, from a range of vineyards, and experience has proven that the best winemaking technique is to know what not to do. I try to keep the winemaking as simple as possible with a view to letting the uniqueness of the vineyard come through.”
The new 2017 Castle Rock Estate Shiraz was fermented in French barriques (25 per cent new) with 20 per cent fermented separately as whole bunches and blended back prior to bottling.
“We obviously try to capture the best from the vineyard and although the 2017 vintage was dry, the fruit ripened beautifully. The region’s cool maritime climate is perfectly suited for growing medium bodied Shiraz. The aim is to produce a varietal wine with a generous palate, savoury and silky texture, fine tannins and an elegant finish.
“Much of the focus remains in the vineyard where we are constantly trialling various practices to increase quality and prevent issues and disease during harvest. This year we trialled running the harvester over the vines in December to remove the flowering debris and old blossom, thereby reducing botrytis pressure, as this can be where fungal infections can start. The trial was quite promising.”
The Castle Rock Estate wines are distributed in NSW by IS Wine, in Victoria by Wholesale Wine Services and in WA by Fine Wine Wholesalers. The wines are also available online at www.castlerockestate.com.au
For further information and images please contact:
David Cumming at Define Wine Marketing & Communications on 0414 736 342 or [email protected]
Rob Diletti, Winemaker at Castle Rock on 0447 531 035 or [email protected]
Castle Rock Estate is nestled on the eastern slopes of the Porongurup Mountain and is named after a prominent nearby landmark. The vineyard, which sits in Great Southern’s sub region Porongurup, has a cool and elevated northerly aspect, resulting in intensely flavoured wines, particularly Riesling, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. The vineyard was established in 1983 by Angelo and Wendy Diletti and is now run by their son Rob. Their 200 tonne winery was constructed in 2000 and in 2015 Rob Diletti was named Wine Companion Winemaker of the Year.
“The 2019 vintage has been one of the most challenging I have experienced, however we are harvesting some high quality fruit. With good vineyard management setting it up, we have been able to manage most weather conditions and this year came out pretty well unscathed,” said Castle Rock Estate winegrower Rob Diletti.
Apart from some well-timed rain during late winter it was a very dry 12 months, although not excessively hot. Last year’s rain was enough to provide an adequate supply of irrigation water. These factors combined to ensure budburst was not too early.
Spring growing conditions were excellent, with vine development about two to three weeks later than last year. “There was some rough, wet weather during flowering and that, combined with the general dry conditions, meant the fruit set was not great and we ended up with much lower yields.”
With the New Year the dry conditions set in and the vineyard was watered regularly to keep the vines healthy, ensuring some leaf protection of the fruit from the sun. There were some vineyards in the area, that couldn't provide enough water and the vines began to suffer.
On the 7th March we had 30mm of rain over three days, which saturated the ground and the vines took in a lot of water. There was some splitting of fruit in the region’s vineyards where the vines were stressed and subsequently botrytis pressure mounted.
“We had a week and a half of fine weather in which we harvested the Pinot Noir and a third of of our Riesling. We also picked most of our contract white varieties.”
On the 20th March we had 71mm of rain in three hours. Much of the water ran off but, after the previous rain event, left the remaining whites in a precarious situation. The next morning was fine, allowing the harvest of the remaining Riesling and Sauvignon Blanc; the resulting juice was exceptional.
“It then rained and drizzled for the next two days, so I was really pleased we jumped when we did. It is sunny now, so we’re confident that the quality of the remaining reds will be high.”
Castle Rock Estate’s harvesting of high quality fruit can be put down to judicious management, but the low yields also helped, ensuring the fruit was not over-crowded.
On top of the low yields there was very little Marri blossom (which the birds prefer to grapes) adding more bird pressure than we have had for several years. Anything that was not netted suffered some losses.
“Despite the dry growing conditions, wet harvest, birds and low yields, I believe we have some excellent quality fruit in to the winery, albeit around 40 per cent lower in quantity than average. The Pinot Noir is outstanding and the Riesling will be on a par with the previous few superior vintages.”
For further information and images please contact:
David Cumming at Define Wine Marketing & Communications on 0414 736 342 or [email protected]
Rob Diletti, Winemaker at Castle Rock on 0447 531 035 or [email protected]
Castle Rock Estate is nestled on the eastern slopes of the Porongurup Mountain and is named after a prominent nearby landmark. The vineyard, which sits in Great Southern’s sub region Porongurup, has a cool and elevated northerly aspect, resulting in intensely flavoured wines, particularly Riesling, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. The vineyard was established in 1983 by Angelo and Wendy Diletti and is now run by their son Rob. Their 200 tonne winery was constructed in 2000 and in 2015 Rob Diletti was named Wine Companion Winemaker of the Year.
Great Southern’s Castle Rock Estate has enjoyed a successful 2018 Wine Show of Western Australia, being awarded the Trophy for the Most Successful Small Exhibitor (processing under 250 Tonnes), along with the Trophy for Best Great Southern Wine, Best Riesling and Best Pinot Noir.
The 41st Wine Show of Western Australia saw 834 entries from 115 winegrower from across WA, with judging conducted under the guidance of Chair Judge, winemaker Samantha Connew.
“The Great Southern region has worked hard with riesling and it’s rewarding to see the positive results. Our riesling vineyard was planted in 1983 and is set high in the Porongurup Ranges, which is located 40 km north of Albany. The 350 meters altitude and the position of the vineyard, which exposes the vines to cooling south-east breezes, results in a prolonged growing season and enables the fruit to develop maximum varietal flavour and ripeness,” explained winemaker and owner Rob Diletti.
“It’s certainly an exciting time in WA, particularly for riesling. We have had a number of excellent vintages which have been rewarded across the various classes in the Show.”
The judges commented that the 2018 Rieslings comprise an “excellent class, lots of diversity and winemakers sending the wines into new directions, which is exciting and interesting to watch. Best wines are pure and concentrated.”
Winequip Trophy for Most Successful Small Exhibitor processing under 250 tonnes
Castle Rock Estate
Shire of Plantagenet Trophy for Best Great Southern White
2018 Castle Rock Estate ‘Porongurup’ Riesling
Plasdene Glass-Pak Trophy for Best Riesling
2018 Castle Rock Estate ‘Porongurup’ Riesling
Great Southern Wine Producers Association Trophy for Best Pinot Noir
2017 Castle Rock Estate ‘Porongurup’ Pinot Noir
Gold Medals
2017 Castle Rock Estate ‘A&W Reserve’ Riesling
2016 Castle Rock Estate ‘Porongurup’ Riesling
2017 Castle Rock Estate ‘Porongurup’ Riesling
2018 Castle Rock Estate ‘Porongurup’ Riesling
2018 Castle Rock Estate ‘Skywalk’ Riesling
2017 Castle Rock Estate ‘Porongurup’ Pinot Noir
Distribution: The Castle Rock Estate wines are distributed in NSW by Inglewood Wine Merchants, in Victoria by Prime Wines and in WA by Fine Wine Wholesalers. The wines are also available online at www.castlerockestate.com.au
For further information and images please contact:
David Cumming at Define Wine Marketing & Communications on 0414 736 342 or david@ definewine.com.au
Rob Diletti at Castle Rock on rob@ castlerockestate.com.au or 0447 531 035
Castle Rock Estateis nestled on the eastern slopes of the Porongurup Mountain and is named after a prominent nearby landmark. The vineyard has a cool and elevated northerly aspect, resulting in intensely flavoured wines, particularly Riesling, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. Castle Rock Estate was established in 1983 by Angelo and Wendy Diletti and is now run by their son Rob. In 2015 Rob Diletti was named Wine Companion Winemaker of the Year.
