Its been a rollercoaster of a year so far for White Castle vineyard, awards for our quality Welsh wines across the board include Decanter world wine awards 2023, International wine challenge and Wine GB annual wine competitions. White Castle Pinot Noir Précoce 2021 has certainly been in demand and was awarded Gold at this year’s Wine GB annual competition. We are very pleased to receive the WineGb Regional producers Award for Wales for the 3rd consecutive year.
A shout out to you adopt a vine holders, your Gold award Pinot Noir Précoce wine awaits you, it would be best in your wine rack and not ours, impress your family and friends with quality award winning Welsh wine and we look forward to hearing from you.
Our new release white and rose wines from vintage 2022 have been well received, in fact managing supply and demand is always a balancing act, hence this year we planted more Siegerrebe, Phoenix and a first for us Chardonnay.
Siegerrebe translates to “winning hand” and that’s certainly the case for us, its aromatic characteristics are delightful.
Phoenix is the essence of our Gwin gwyn dry and delicate, with floral aromas of elderflower and ripe citrus fruits on the palate.
Our vineyard tours have been well supported with visitors enjoying a glass of wine with spectacular views of the vines, at present we have row after row of lush vine leaf, however Autumn displays a tapestry of colour with the change in leaf colour, boasting Sunkissed grapes.
Harvest is an exciting time we get to reap the fruits of our labour and this year we are hopeful of a good yield. Sunshine hours have been kind, although a lot of rain I hear you say, all good for swelling the grapes. We are seeing veraison in all our red grapes at the moment with robust rondo well ahead of the game.
We are leaf stripping at the moment, opening up the canopy to allow our wonderful crop to bask in the sunshine, a good air flow is paramount to avoid mildews.
Time to reflect : Vintage 2022…… What a year that was and on tasting our wines in barrel have we got some great red wines to tease your palate later in the year.
Cabernet Franc WOW will be bottled in the coming months and then spend sometime aging in bottle before release. Grown in Llanvetherine Monmouthshire Wales, provenance and integrity are paramount to everything we do here at White Castle Vineyard.
Reality check,
In May Robb was awarded an MBE for his services to viticulture, both Robb and I are delighted and are looking forward to the ceremony that will follow later this year.
As a producer we are meeting the needs of changing consumer eating habits by making sure white castle vineyard wines are suitable for vegan drinkers
White Castle Vineyard Winery Hooray !!!! We have broken soil and the base of the proposed winery has been laid, meanwhile we have many a vine to tend and so the build shall evolve over the next few months, watch this space.
Until next time…… Nicola & Robb Merchant
