Roccat Vineyards

In 2008, Anthony & Marie Catanzariti, Marie’s brother Joseph Rocca and his wife Jenna decided to plant a vineyard on the 60 acre Rocca cattle property, in the small village of One Tree Hill in the Adelaide Foothills.

Marie and Joseph’s father Ross purchased the property in 1985 and ran it as a cattle property for the next 20 years. In 2006, Anthony, who is himself a winemaker in the Barossa Valley, purchased fruit from a neighbouring property, with the aim being to pinpoint a suitable area for growing Mediterranean varieties in South Australia. He purchased Shiraz, Sangiovese, Tempranillo and Nebbiolo to start with and all but the Nebbiolo were a tremendous success. Through a few trials and tribulations – plus a great deal of success – they now grow a fantastic range: Shiraz, Durif, Sangiovese, Montepulciano, Tempranillo, Grenache and Graciano.

Their property, One Tree Hill, is nestled in between the Barossa GI and The Adelaide Hills GI, in the Mount Lofty Ranges. While a vineyard without a premium GI was a concern to the family, they decided that the quality of fruit would be able to stand on its own merits. They also had the fact that the property lies on the same ridge as the famous Magill vineyards to help them rest easily. Another little bonus, Penfolds were large fruit buyers in the area which provided further reassurance to the family that they were making the right decision.

The vineyard was planted with the hope that one day the family would create their own label, using Josephs skills in marketing and design and Anthony’s Winemaking background. The theme of vineyard was food friendly wines with a Mediterranean varietal influence, with the traditional Australian red wine workhorse – Shiraz, also playing a role due to its superior quality in this area. Making their own wine is still a way off yet, but are happy to see the fruit of their labour end up in some great wines.

The altitude of the vineyards ranges between 260 and 300m. Located in its own natural valley with both North facing and South facing plots.

From Anthony’s experience in vineyard and grape assessment he decided to plant 2 blocks of each variety, one with North-South and the other with East-West row orientation, that way some of the seasonal variability (either Hot or Cooler vintages) could be countered and could consistently deliver quality fruit.