Our tiny estate vineyard is on a quite steep NE slope of well draining clay on the Tawharanui Peninsula, some 5 kms east of Matakana.

We planted the vines in the spring of 1998 at 1m vine spacing and 1.8m between each of the 26 North-South rows. At the end of each row is one of Val's favourite rose bushes which provide fresh blooms for the luxury B&B accommodation rooms for several months of each year. The grape varietals planted are Syrah, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Malbec with multiple clones of each on three selected rootstocks

Only grapes harvested from the estate vineyard are made into our Castle Matakana wine. The current vintages are all very easy drinking yet vibrant fruit driven wines bottled after 12 months in a mix of new and old French oak. Our "Proprietors Reserve" wines undergo further ageing in French oak for another 8-12 months. We then bottle them after some 2 years in the wood during which time the wines have successfully concentrated in body and flavours and mellowed markedly in comparison to the earlier bottled wines.