The Coming of Castagna

Something very special happens to shiraz when grown in the rocky hills around Beechworth in north-east Victoria. Now that it’s becoming more popular around Australia to talk up Rhone-like shirazes as alternatives to the riper, richer version we’ve all been weaned on, it’s my view that Beechworth has as much chance as any other region to make a name for them. It’s never likely to flood the market with shiraz, since there simply aren’t enough suitable sites there, but it’s going to make an impact.

Ever since Rick Kinzbrunner made his first Giaconda Shiraz from fruit grown near Myrtleford in the Ovens Valley in 1998, I’ve expected big things from shiraz grown in Victoria’s high country. This was a meaty, spicy wine, deeply flavoured with cherry and plum fruits, distinctively peppery and about as far removed from Australian mainstream shiraz as it was possible to get. Since then, Kinzbrunner has released shiraz from his neighbouring Warner Vineyard, a wine becoming steadily more impressive and less identifiably Australian with each passing season.

The latest name to create headlines with Beechworth shiraz is Castagna, which first created waves with its very stylish, smoky and savoury 1999 Genesis Syrah. Despite a multitude of press reports to the contrary, this wine was in fact made at the winery of Castagna’s near neighbour, Giaconda. ‘It was a great advantage having Rick looking over my shoulder’, says Castagna, who is himself entirely responsible for the subsequent releases from 2000 and 2001, which were made at his own property.

Italian born but a resident of Australia since he was two years of age, Julian Castagna spent his youth in Melbourne before moving to London where he worked throughout the 1970s and the early 1980s. He established Enigma, a film house for advertising in Sydney in the mid 1980s, finally taking the plunge in the 1990s to establish a vineyard.

Although Julian Castagna professes a life’s interest in wine, including working several French vintages while in the UK, when he discussed getting out of advertising in the 1980s it wasn’t immediately obvious what he and his wife Carolann, a writer, were going to do. ‘From being an exciting thing to do, advertising came to be controlled by market research and I stopped enjoying it. So I stopped advertising’, says Castagna. ‘We decided to move to the country, but certainly didn’t intend to do what happened’, he says. ‘It’s been hard giving up an income and I’d still like to do some feature work in future.’

A taste of Rick Kinzbrunner’s Giaconda Cabernet Sauvignon was what it took to inspire Castagna to make contact with this gifted winemaker, with whom he began to work in the cellar. Kinzbrunner eventually found the property that Castagna purchased which, like so many others, was initially just to be a hobby project. Then, as has been reported elsewhere, he chose to plant shiraz so his wines wouldn’t compete directly with Giaconda’s. Kinzbrunner was planting his own shiraz at the same time, so to some degree they would both tread this path together.

Like most of the best vineyards around Beechworth, the Castagnas’ is founded on decomposed granitic soils overlying clay. The region’s warm daily temperatures give way to cool nights, and it’s this range of temperature extremes during a day that certainly adds bite and vivacity to its wines. The vineyard is around 100 metres higher than Giaconda’s, and to date its shirazes are a little finer and marginally more herbal. Julian Castagna controls his crop to around two tonnes per acre and is fully converted to biodynamic viticulture. Similar to most of the region’s wine producers, the vines are pruned and harvested by hand. Made with minimal intervention and sulphur additions, Castagna says his wines are actually made organically.

The Castagna vineyard is presently six acres, which Julian intends to double, but then no more. ‘Then I’d have to start employing someone’, he says, which does not feature on his list of priorities. While most of the plantings are to six different clones of shiraz, with a small amount of sangiovese, Castagna initially made provision to incorporate about 10 of viognier into his wine. He’s now using 3 out of choice and has a couple of barrels of straight viognier from 2002 that he’s watching quietly. He also planted a little mourvedre, since he wanted ‘a hint of violet’ in the wine. Alas, it didn’t ripen and has been top-grafted to sangiovese.

Although he has spent a couple of years studying wine at Dookie College in central Victoria, Castagna is quoted as saying he gained his winemaking experience from ‘watching and helping people whose wine I respect, make wine’. Much of this was from Rick Kinzbrunner. ‘Rick showed me the way’, he agrees, ‘but I have my own ideas as well. Winemaking isn’t brain surgery. The main thing is deciding what you want and having the courage to do it. I believe that biodynamics are very important – that’s where we getting the flavours from today.’ Interestingly, it wasn’t until he’d gone down the path that Castagna discovered that his grandfather made wine for a living in Italy.

Interestingly, the link between Giaconda and Castagna is even closer than most realise, since they both shared the same parcel of Myrtleford fruit in 1998, making wines side by side at Giaconda. This gave each individual a practice run with shiraz before their own fruit came into yield. The wines were sold as Giaconda Buffalo River Shiraz and Castagna Shiraz respectively.

Picked at less than a tonne per acre, there were only 100 cases of the 1999 Genesis Shiraz. Production has increased to 700 cases for the 2001 vintage, which is matured in around 45 new oak and is released around eighteen months of age. The wine finishes its fermentation in oak, but doesn’t acquire obvious barrel ferment mocha-like characters. Castagna is presently producing a total of around five hundred dozen, which he hopes will peak around fifteen hundred.

The current release from the 2001 vintage is priced at $48 on the mailing list. Previous vintages of the wine sold for around $38 ex cellar, but have been found around $US200 in the States, where they are imported by Dan Phillips’ The Grateful Palate, a business intimately linked with the astonishing prices some Australian wines are fetching in that country. Back when it was only $US100, Robert Parker once said of the 1999 vintage: ‘Some serious egos must be at work behind the pricing of both these wines’, but Castagna’s defence on this is rock-solid, since he’s not to blame for what happens after he’s sold the wine, in this instance at $A28. Parker gave the wine a remarkable 96 points.

Castagna is however unafraid to make his point. Defending his pricing against an article in the Australian media which mentioned his vineyard’s lack of track record, he said: ‘My view is that I for one would prefer to drink what’s in the bottle rather than any track-record, because in my experience, these days track-records so often disappoint.’ Them’s fighting words, since it’s inevitable one day they will be applied to any wine with a track record, perhaps even his.

For the record, Julian Castagna also produces two other wines: the Allegro Rose from shiraz and the La Chiave Sangiovese. Although it’s obvious that he likes his rose and so indeed do others, it dries out rather quickly for me, finishing raw and even spirity in the case of the 2002 wine. Mind you, I taste these wines between cellar and room temperature, so they’ll be more fun to drink than my ratings might suggest. I quite enjoyed the 2001 Sangiovese, but found its supple texture and boiled lolly flavours more akin to what I’d expect from dolcetto.

Julian Castagna is clearly very, very committed. Not only to refining and developing his own expression of shiraz, but to reinforce the message to drinkers of Australian shiraz that there is an alternative. Given that his 2001 Genesis Syrah is only the fourth crop from his vineyard, his potential to do more is unquestioned.

Castagna Tasting Notes

Castagna Allegro Rose 2002

$26 ex cellar 15.0

Rather a pale and burnished crimson, with a spirity aroma of raspberry and cherry confection lifted by floral and spicy notes. Hard and spirity, more tough and demanding than I’d expect of a rose, its thick, cloying palate culminating in raw edges. Would have been much better with less alcohol. Drink 2002-2003.

Castagna Allegro Rose 2001

16.3

Fuller crimson-salmon hues with a pungent, wild aroma of small confection-like red berries, pepper and spice. Rich and generous, its texture is round and fleshy, but finishes dry and savoury with a firm extract of phenolics. Drink 2001-2002.

Castagna La Chiave Sangiovese 2001

$38 ex cellar 16.1

Spicy, minty and slightly medicinal aromas of cinnamon, cloves and herbs with boiled lolly-like raspberries and cherries, hints of banana and a light spikiness. Sweet, fleshy and juicy palate of bright red berry fruits is slightly cooked, finishing with fine tannins and lingering savoury cinnamon flavours. Drink 2002-2003+.

Castagna Genesis Syrah 2001

$46 ex cellar 17.4

Complex, musky fragrance of red and black berry fruits, briar, plums and dark cherries, lifted by cloves and cinnamon, hints of meat, apricots and forest floor. A fraction spirity, but otherwise restrained and ethereal. Long, supple and fine-grained, it presents almost searingly intense raspberry and dark cherry flavours despite its relative elegance and tightness. Earthy hints of farmyard and cured meats add complexity. Would be marked higher, but a portion of the vineyard appears to have been harvested riper, with some suggestion of dehydration and a loss of freshness. Otherwise an excellent effort. Drink 2003-2006+.

Castagna Genesis Syrah 2000

17.0

Restrained, leafy, meaty undergrowth-like aromas slightly overwhelm this wine’s sweet mulberry, dark cherry and plum aromas, while dusty, cedary vanilla oak plays second fiddle. Reserved and elegant but lacking great length, with leafy capsicum notes marginally detracting from attractive cassis and plum flavours, finishing with hints of cool mint and menthol. Drink 2002-2005.

Castagna Genesis Syrah 1999

18.6

Intense fragrance of mulberries, cassis and dark plums now developing musky, meaty and gamey aromas of dark chocolate, sweet leather, duck fat and dusty oak. Supple, smooth and velvet-like, the fleshy and generously flavoured palate is full to medium in length, finishing soft, dry and savoury, with fine tannins. Deftly handled to cope with its slight hint of reduction, this elegant and meaty shiraz is a superlative effort from such young vines. Drink 2004-2007. Please login to post comment