The ultra serious Castle Rock Estate Diletti Riesling 2023

Here’s an Australian Riesling that isn’t just about hard lines and purity. This Castle Rock Estate Diletti Riesling 2023 is Rob Diletti’s Germanic take, with free-run juice, barrel fermentation and ten months on lees.

It’s Western Australian Rizza, made like a Chardy, and it’s unquestionably impressive.

Of course, the Castle Rock Estate Vineyard is now 44 years old, and the Diletti family has nailed this Riesling thing already, so really if anyone can make a worked Riesling ‘work’, it’s Castle Rock. The extra time on lees fills it out a bit, too, adding a little leesy ‘white’ aromatics and fruit flavours to complement a pithy, grapefruit-drenched palate of high acid but not harshness. In other words, it’s firm but not jagged, and even if it’s not necessarily an easy drink, this has drive and presence.

THE VERDICT

• Best drinking: now or forever more. It's going to live
• Score (out of 20): 18.5
• Score (out of 100): 94
• Alcohol %: 11.7
• RRP (in $AUD): 42
• Winery website: https://castlerockestate.com.au/
• Would I buy it?: sure would