With vintage in full swing, Castle Rock Estate has released their Pinot Noirs. These wines comprise the 2023 vintages of the Castle Rock Estate ‘A&W’ Pinot Noir, Castle Rock Estate ‘Diletti’ Pinot Noir and the Castle Rock Estate Pinot Noir.
The Great Southern wine region is the one of the world’s largest wine regions, most isolated wine regions and home to the world’s oldest mountain range, the Porongurup. Over one billion years old, the Porongurup is founded on majestic granite peaks, imposing stands of Karri trees, ancient waterways, and seas of wildflower. Within this idyllic and unique setting Castle Rock Estate has been growing grapes and making wine for over 40 years.
Second generation vigneron Rob Diletti has defined the business with his skill and experience in crafting a range of Riesling and Pinot Noir. Castle Rock Estate’s three tiers of Pinot Noir have been developed over the years with the aim of presenting three distinctive wines. “There is a strong and optimistic future in the Porongurup for Pinot Noir,” says Rob. “This is evident by the number of new plantings, which is against the trend of winegrowing in Australia at present. We are included, having recently purchased a new block which will be planted out to Pinot Noir.
“We are excited to be able to increase our Pinot Noir offerings and be able to further explore the unique expressions of the variety from our site. Although we have been growing Pinot Noir for nearly 40 years, we continue to experiment and refine our winemaking and viticultural techniques to constantly push quality and reach new potential into the future.”
The Castle Rock Estate ‘A&W’ Pinot Noir is named in honour of Angelo and Wendy, our founders of who planted the first Pinot Noir vines in 1986. The wine showcases the old vines, not only highlighting the premium quality of Pinot Noir grown in the Porongurups, but also the greatness of the site. It is made from estate fruit, sourced primarily from oldest plantings (1986), and matured in French oak on medium lees for ten months. The wine is from selected barrels, from several small batch treatments for the final blend (18% New oak, 27% whole bunch).
Our 2023 Castle Rock Estate ‘Diletti’ Pinot Noir comprises handpicked estate fruit. Whole bunch fermenters were filled with CO2 gas and sealed to encourage carbonic maceration and left to cold soak. The ferments were foot stomped throughout fermentation followed by ten months barrel maturation on medium lees (14% new oak, 78% whole bunch).
The 2023 Castle Rock Estate Pinot Noir is hand and machine harvested with a blend of different treatments including seven-day cold soak, whole bunch ferment and barrel fermentation. It was filled to a mix of new and seasoned French barriques and puncheons, matured for ten months on medium lees (25% new oak, 15% whole bunch).
Pricing and 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 available at castlerockestate.com.au
2023 Castle Rock Estate ‘A&W’ Pinot Noir ($57)
Harvest: 17/03/23 | Alc: 13.3% | pH: 3.6 | TA: 6.1g/L
2023 Castle Rock Estate ‘Diletti’ Pinot Noir ($52)
Harvest: 28/03/23 | Alc: 12.5% | pH: 3.72 | TA: 5.9g/L
2023 Castle Rock Estate Pinot Noir ($44)
Harvest: 17/03/23 | Alc: 12.5% | pH: 3.58 | TA: 6.5g/L
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, Winemaker at Castle Rock on 0447 531 035 or rob@castlerockestate.com.au
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. Rob was a finalist in the 2019 Gourmet Traveller WINE Magazine Winemaker of the Year awards and a finalist in the 2022 Wine Companion ‘Best Value Winery’ Awards.