40 Years of Riesling with Castle Rock
13 Wines, Three Sittings, One Granite Hillside
Wendy and Angelo Diletti planted here when almost nobody was looking at the Porongurup, on ancient granite at some of the highest elevation in Western Australian viticulture. Their son Rob has spent his career proving they were right.
Ray Jordan calls him one of the state's finest winemakers. James Halliday gave the 2022 Diletti Pinot Noir 96 points and wrote that "a silken thread takes hold of the senses."
Thirteen wines across the range: three Rieslings including the flagship A&W, two Chardonnays, four Pinot Noirs spanning the Estate, A&W and Diletti tiers, the estate reds, and a Muscat to finish. Rob is hosting all three sittings.
Sunday, September 20th
Hosted by Rob Diletti
Lunch: 12–3pm | 13 wines and 4 courses | $115
Masterclass: 4–6pm | 13 wines & canapés | $50
Dinner: 6.30–9.30pm | 13 wines and 4 courses | $115
The Porongurup, and Forty Years on One Hillside
The Porongurup is a small range of granite domes north of Albany, roughly a billion years old and among the oldest exposed rock on earth. The vineyards sit high on its slopes, cool, wind-exposed and slow-ripening. It is a difficult place to grow grapes and an exceptional place to grow Riesling.
Wendy and Angelo Diletti planted the estate vines in 1986. The A&W range is named for them. Their son Rob makes the wine, and has built a reputation as one of the most technically gifted and least self-promoting winemakers in Western Australia. Ray Jordan puts it plainly: "Rob Diletti has proven himself one of the state's finest winemakers, particularly in his handling of Pinot Noir."
The style is consistent across four decades and every tier. Restraint over power. Talc and musk minerality in the Rieslings, sitting on acid that is naturally high rather than adjusted. Pinot Noir at the lighter, finer end of the spectrum, with granitic tannin and real length. These are wines built by someone with nothing to prove and forty years of data on one hillside.
Meet your host… Rob Diletti
Rob Diletti has made every Castle Rock wine for more than two decades, working from the estate his parents planted in 1986. He is a repeat presence at the top of Ray Jordan's Western Australian rankings and in the Halliday Wine Companion, and is regarded as one of the country's most assured handlers of both Riesling and Pinot Noir. He will host all three sittings.
Rob is pouring across lunch, masterclass and dinner. The wine list is identical at all three sittings.
The Wine List
First Course
2025 Porongurup Riesling
96 Points, Ray Jordan, WA Wine Review 2026
Another cracking riesling from this wonderful Porongurup vineyard under winemaker Rob Diletti. Captures the season perfectly, all the fresh vibrant intensity of riesling delivered with an almost understated textural feel. Slight lemon scent with deeper lemon pith, obvious talcy, musk-like minerality. The palate is delicately poised and fine, yet the flavour lingers and lingers. Delivers so much, but with wonderful restraint.
A&W Riesling 2025
A&W Riesling 2024
Diletti Riesling 2023
Porongurup Riesling 2021
New season asparagus, sambal butter
Second Course
2022 Castle Rock Diletti Chardonnay
Producer tasting note
“Supple and well weighted. The stone fruit and mealy texture framed by French oak cedar and toast notes create an elegant richness to the mid-palate. Balanced by a seamless line of cool climate acid structure, providing length and drive. The complex flavours linger thanks to a long, fine finish.
Third Course
Estate Pinot Noir 2024
Gold Medal, 2025 WA Boutique and Single Vineyard Wine Show
95 Points - Ray Jordan, Wine Pilot
Rob Diletti has proved himself one of the state’s finest winemakers over the years, and this is especially manifest in his approach with pinot noir. Shows elegance with slightly savoury truffly characters with a vibrant fruit purity. Typical aromas of strawberry and even a little cherry with a slightly savoury influence that threads through into the palate, rolls effortlessly over the palate with fine tannins and a nice integrated use of oak. Fleshy, textural, and retaining fine acidity. A testament to good viticulture and winemaking in a challenging year. Cellar: 8 Years
Diletti Pinot Noir 2025
96 Points - Ray Jordan, rayjordanwine.com
This wine takes things up a notch. Typically handpicked and then whole-bunch fermented, it’s a wine of both aromatics and structure and remarkable poise. The nose is immediately more complex, with less of the primary fruit aromatics and more interest from the savoury, slightly earthy notes that emerge. There’s tremendous structure and definition here, but all delivered with impeccable balance, harnessing that marvellous fruit with some fine chalky tannins and fine-grained, sympathetic oak. There’s some power here, and certainly cellaring will see something special.
A&W Pinot Noir 2025
97 Points, Ray Jordan, WA Wine Review 2026
A fitting tribute to founders Angelo and Wendy Diletti. It’s a combination of the best batches of fruit, which Rob Diletti believes best express what this quite special site is all about. Immediately, a characterful aroma is complexing and intriguing. Notes of dark fruits, mushroom and savouriness, and then a palate that is both plush and structured, with an essential driving core carrying through to a sustained finish. This might be an expression of site and vintage, but it is also a worthy statement of a master craftsman at work. Super wine.
A&W Pinot Noir 2024
96 Points, Ray Jordan, WA Wine Review 2026
A tribute to Castle Rock’s founders, Wendy and Angelo, an exquisitely crafted wine of polish, texture and depth. The colour is luminous and alive, belying its lightness with a driving intensity. Tannins and oak are finely tuned, harnessing the fruit into a wine that is focused and long through the palate. Despite the warm vintage, the higher-altitude Porongurup site has delivered a refined, balanced expression.
Diletti Pinot Noir 2022
96 Points, James Halliday, Halliday Wine Companion
Bright clear crimson, much lighter than its midnight plum A&W sibling, but similar to the ’21 Diletti. It is fragrant, with rose petals leading the field of spices; take the glass away from the nose and a silken thread takes hold of the senses.
Duck rillette croquettes, salsa verde
Fourth Course
2023 Castle Rock Estate Shiraz
90 Points, Mike Bennie, Halliday Wine Companion
“Nicely played. Medium-weight, soft-textured, red-berried, sweetly spiced shiraz. Toasty clove on dark cherry, mocha and chocolate. Mint-coconut notes, faint terracotta and a marshmallow-like thing happening too. Pleasing stuff. Drink 2025–2030.”
To Finish…
NV Castle Rock Muscat
Tasting note to follow