Clonakilla Canberra District Shiraz Viognier 2019 $110 cellar door Tim Kirk says the warm 2019 vintage produced some of Clonakilla’s richest, darkest fruit on record. The resulting shiraz–viognier blend, while bigger than usual, retains the flagship’s familiar, medium-bodied, aromatic style. We served it masked and our little tasting panel admired the wine’s floral aroma, supple … Continue reading Wine review – Clonakilla’s sensational 2019 flagship →

Clonakilla Murrumbateman Syrah 2017 $108 Of medium hue, lighter in colour than Western Vineyard Syrah and Shiraz Viognier reviewed below, Syrah 2017 offers sweet aromas of dark fruits, cut with savoury notes. The palate’s full but fine, with tight tannins adding structure and additional savour to the deep fruit. Summed up as subtle, sensuous and … Continue reading Canberra shiraz: revolutionary new Clonakilla wine, gold-medal Mount Majura →

Grenache deserves more credit than it gets says Clonakilla winemaker Tim Kirk. Speaking at a Canberra tasting in late April 2019, Kirk rated Chateau Rayas 1990 as one of the three greatest wines he’d tried. The current vintage of this all-grenache red from France’s Chateauneuf du Pape area (southern Rhone Valley), sells for around $900. … Continue reading Grenache review – Clonakilla and Heidenreich →

Clonakilla Canberra District Riesling 2018 $32 To every thing there is a season. And for Clonakilla riesling, the warm, dry 2018 season produced a riper, richer wine than in the cooler 2017 vintage. Despite the heat, ‘Grapes held excellent acid’, says winemaker Tim Kirk. That tangy acidity balances a delicious riesling with rich, citrus-like varietal … Continue reading Wine review – Clonakilla →

If Australia owns any one wine grape variety, it’s shiraz. We grow around 40,000 hectares of it. Our shiraz vineyards cluster either side of the 4,000 kilometres from east to west coast, through 16 degrees of latitude (from south-eastern Queensland (27 degrees) to southern Tasmania (43 degrees) and from near sea level to 700 or … Continue reading Savouring magnificence – three beautiful Aussie shirazes: John Duval, Tyrrell’s, Clonakilla →

Clonakilla Canberra District Syrah 2016 $120 Clonakilla Syrah comes from T&L block, the warmest site on the Kirk family’s Murrumbateman vineyard. From its earliest vintages the block, planted in 1999, ripened early than its neighbours and produced a distinctive, comparatively robust shiraz, albeit within the medium-bodied Canberra District spectrum. On first opening the 2016 showed … Continue reading Wine review – Clonakilla wines for release 1 May 2018 →

Canberra’s one and only blue-chip wine, Clonakilla Shiraz–Viognier, has a rival. And it’s from the same winery. This is its story. In 2010, Canberra’s Clonakilla Shiraz Viognier joined the blue chips of Australian wine – alongside Penfolds Grange and Henschke Hill of Grace. Clonakilla’s ranking in the “Exceptional” category of Langton’s Classification of Australian Wine … Continue reading Birth of a Canberra bluechip – Clonakilla Syrah →