The annual Castle Rock Estate Pinot Noir release sees three interpretations of this regional hero offered by Castle Rock Estate.
The 2024 vintage in Porongurup was one of the earliest the region had experienced. As usual, the stand-out varieties were Pinot Noir and Riesling, highlighting the unique site’s suitability for these varieties.
The 55-hectare vineyard sits at an elevation of 300 metres and captures the cooling south-east breeze. This results in a prolonged growing season, enabling varieties like Riesling and Pinot Noir which are heat sensitive and early to ripen, to develop maximum varietal flavour and ripeness while maintaining natural acidity and balance.
The 2024 Castle Rock Estate ‘A&W’ Pinot Noir, named in honour for the winery’s founders, Angelo and Wendy Diletti, primarily comprises grapes from the original 1986 plantings. The fruit was fermented and matured in French oak on medium lees for ten months (17% new oak, and 25% whole bunch inclusion).
The 2024 Castle Rock Estate ‘Diletti’ Pinot Noir in contrast is made with a combination of whole bunch fermentation and semi-carbonic maceration. The ferment was foot stomped prior to ten months on medium lees in seasoned French oak (91% whole bunch inclusion).
The Castle Rock Estate Pinot Noir was our first Pinot Noir and highlighted the suitability of our site to produce premium wine from this grape. Fruit for the 2024 Castle Rock Estate Pinot Noir was sourced from across the whole estate, vine age ranging from 38 to 10 years old. It is made with a combination of techniques, including seven-day cold soak, whole bunch and barrel fermentation. Maturation is in combination of new and seasoned French barriques and puncheons for ten months (26% new oak, 13% whole bunch inclusion).
“The 2024 vintage started nearly four weeks earlier than the previous year and was certainly challenging. That said we were extremely pleased and proud of the wines that we produced. This was achieved by maintaining our irrigation throughout harvest, careful monitoring of the vines as well as the grapes, and picking immediately when needed,” reflects owner and winemaker Rob Diletti.
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
2024 Castle Rock Estate ‘A&W’ Pinot Noir ($60): Harvest: 22&24/02/24 | Alc: 13.6% | pH: 3.54 | TA: 5.7g/L
2024 Castle Rock Estate ‘Diletti’ Pinot Noir ($55): Harvest: 24/02/24 | Alc: 13.3% | pH: 3.47 | TA: 6.2g/L
2024 Castle Rock Estate Pinot Noir ($46): Harvest: 17-24/02/24 | Alc: 14.0% | pH: 3.46 | TA: 6.2g/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.