The Castagna Vineyard is situated at an altitude of 500 metres five-and-a-half kilometres outside the beautiful town of Beechworth in Northeast Victoria, high in the foothills of the Australian Alps.

Our intention is to make, as simply as possible, wine which is an expression of the place where it is grown. The Castagna Vineyard is situated at an altitude of 500 metres five-and-a-half kilometres outside the beautiful town of Beechworth in Northeast Victoria, high in the foothills of the Australian Alps. Our soil consists mainly of decomposed granitic-loam on a base of clay. The climate is distinctly Mediterranean with hot days and cool nights during the important part of the growing season. The land is farmed biodynamically; using Rudolf Steiner’s biodynamic principles, because we believe it is the best way to achieve optimum fruit quality that best expresses its terroir.

The vineyard is hand-pruned and the fruit is hand-picked. We crop at a bit less than two tons per acre. The winemaking is very traditional using only our own vineyard’s indigenous yeast with minimal interference. Elevage varies between 18-20 months using only the very best, tight grain French oak available, about half of which is new each year.

Our wine continues on its journey of recognition world-wide – the maxim that ‘Before a wine can be great, it must first be true’ seems, at last, to be embraced and understood by many wine reviewers and well as the general wine buying public.

We now export to about a dozen countries, our wine being available in fine restaurants all over the world – this gives us great pride. Export to France has been a long time coming so it gives me enormous pleasure to know that our wines are now available at Lavinia in the Boulevard de la Madeleine in Paris – surely the world’s best wine shop – truly Daniel in the Lion’s den!

Genesis has been added to Langton’s Classification of Australian Wine – Langton’s Classification is the accepted indicator of Australian Classed growths and is regarded as the definitive indicator of the top Australian wines.

On the European front, the English Financial Times, arguably the world’s most prestigious newspaper, did a story on Australian wine and nominated who they considered to be the twelve best Australian winemakers – Julian Castagna was on that list; an honour, indeed.