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| Drinking Windows and Values |
| Drinking window: Drink between 2026 and 2037 (based on 17 user opinions) |
| Community Tasting History |
| Community Tasting Notes (average 92.6 pts. and median of 93 pts. in 9 notes) - hiding notes with no text | | | Tasted by Jimmy_D on 5/25/2024 & rated 92 points: Some good commentary on this. I’m with DrS on the current state and future potential. The nose was a bit funky on this bottle but it was super silky on the palate. It’s open for business in any case. Worth checking in early if you’ve got a few racked up. (66 views) | | | Tasted by WineGuyX on 3/2/2024 & rated 95 points: Huge nose of fresh cracked pepper, sage, wintergreen, anise, Asian spice box, roasting meat and black cherry. Full-bodied and extremely forward, this is potent and lasting. Loads of blueberry, black cherry and berry, cassis, white and black pepper as well as some garden herbs, led by sage. This wine is huge, but has a semblance of balance with soft but evident tannins and somewhat high acidity. Very well made, this should age for 15+ years but most will likely prefer now. 95 (772 views) | | | Tasted by Cremuel on 11/25/2023 & rated 90 points: Pnp. Dark inky red. Blast of redcurrant, white pepper, acidity and some spices on the nose. Light, white pepper dash, Pinotesque, crunchy red currants, pepperyness comes through. Fresh and interesting. With a bit more air, the crisp red fruit continues, peppery tannins, and a fine structure for aging. Will hopefully gain weight as it ages. (849 views) | | | Tasted by Dr S on 8/9/2023 & rated 94 points: Finesse and intricacy sum up this lighter-weight edition of SV. The pale red rim, then garnet outer circle of colour are tell tale signs, to an extent, that this is a more elegant year.
The almost ethereal, wildy spicey and complex nose is one of the two striking features of this vintage. The aroma wheel keeps spinning. Pepper, charcuterie, a dusting of oak. Then dried rose petals, leaf and dried herb, with raspberry, darker cherries and deeper meat notes. Uber fragrant.
The palate dances and swirls too. It’s only light-medium bodied but it doesn’t need to be more, for mine. What it has is subtle intensity and poise. The tannin/fruit balance is at once intricate and effortless. I found it totally compelling, coming back again and again to search for more answers - but it kept waltzing away around my palate.
I don’t detect the greenery or grassiness that others see. Leafy yes, but not mulchy. I’m self conscious of my strong affiliation for this wine, winery and it’s creator that might deceive or filter the senses. But in cooler and relatively wet years like 2021, 2017 and 2012, my starting point is concern if not scepticism that the wine will live up to standard that kinder, benign years have set. I think 2021 makes the grade, for its beauty and style, although it’s shy of the top rank (a pretty high standard, in my tasting book).
It’s a triumph of viticulture, rigorous fruit selection and delicate wine making. Is it heavily worked? Not sure. Yes there’s whole bunches. Clonakilla were early adoptors of this technique, not least due to a desire to fashion Burgundian elements in the wine, and remain masterful unlike most who fiddle with whole bunch.
But the intricacy comes, for me, from skilful blending of different blocks on the Clonakilla site, that have differing clones, vine age, aspect and nose rings (one of those points is bogus, I think). And are matured in barrels and puncheons from different French coopers, with differing barrel age. Having been lucky once to taste those different components in the pre-blending scoring stage, it’s quite a mosiac from which the Cka team can pick to make up the final wine.
How will it age? A tricky one. The SV tends to put on ‘weight’ and grow in the bottle as it ages. The 2017 is the closest analogue I can think of to the 2021. It looked slender on release. 2017 now looks to be growing in depth. It might be a slightly better vintage but I reckon the 2021 is the better wine. In ten years I think it will be majestically complex, graceful and still fresh. Not an 06 or 08 or 15 or 19, but divine regardless. That’s if you can resist drinking what you have now. (1297 views) | | | Tasted by I'd Rather Be Drinking Wine on 8/5/2023 & rated 93 points: The nose is very interesting, with notes of spice, rose petal and dark fruit. The palate is dominated right now by black pepper and dark fruit with some toasted oak and some dark chocolate. This wine needs time in the bottle, probably at least 5-7 years. Plenty of fruit, acidity and tannin to lay this down. 93 for my palate today, but should pick up a couple points with some time in the bottle. (1370 views) | | | Tasted by Boudica on 3/24/2023 & rated 91 points: Ruby red with youthful purplish tinge, clear, transparent. Extremely clean, very expressive and pronounced nose of Turkish Delight, apricot nectar, abundance of white pepper. Palate is extremely clean, tart and lean acidity, white pepper, apricot nectar and kernel, redcurrant and cranberry. On the lighter side of medium-bodied, verging on austere for this wine. Some slightly stalky tannins but they will subdue with time. Much lighter than other vintages, so will this age as well? Maybe. Regardless, it is delicious drinking, albeit at a significant price. (1497 views) | | | Tasted by Rote Kappelle on 1/15/2023 & rated 93 points: This bottle was given to me by a very good friend. I like Clonakilla because the wine can divide opinion and I admire the dedication and vision of the founders and those who continued after. To a degree, anyone can make well-made wine, but making interesting wine is another matter.
From the start this has all the trademarks. The colour is lightish for an Australian Shiraz based wine, but bright. You know from the colour it will be vivacious and not a baked fruit wine.
The nose is that heady Clonakilla style - lifted, perfumed, intense. Viognier is doing work here but even the Syrah and O'Riada Shiraz tend to have the same characteristic. White pepper is strong, so is something slightly sweet (but not cloying), a hint of apricot kernel, some red fruit (almost raspberry/strawberry) and some pungent green bean and mown grass. The white pepper and mown grass may well alienate some - sod them (pardon the pun).
The palate provides a wine that seems to glide into the mouth and down the throat. It is intense and has good length, with poise on the palate and I always feel a strong link to my experience of Rostaing's wines, even though I know that the inspiration is not Rostaing, but another Northern Rhone maker (Domaine Jamet Cote Rotie).
2021 was a difficult vintage in the Canberra region. I cannot help but feel that the safest course is to enjoy this wine now and over the next few years. It is an absolute joy to drink and it is such a lovely contrast to the usual heavy metal Oz Shiraz. The noticeably green elements worry me if you were to ask me to cellar beyond about 5 years. Clonakilla does cellar well and it is under screwcap, so it tends to age more slowly and predictably than were it under cork. I guess I see little need to cellar when it is great to drink now and when the balance is so good. The risks are weighted on the downside, because the green characters could get quite nasty in time and, even if they don't, I still don't see exactly what the benefit is - yes, maybe some secondary elements like earth or a touch of soy or tobacco but if they combine with 'mean and green' and the wine gets a little dilute and lean is it worth it?
I don't really see an expensive wine that drinks really well now as a problem. Cellaring is a means not an end - I sometimes think that the tail can end up wagging the dog there. Also, the French, for example, used to understand that early drinking years are a good thing, giving you something to enjoy whilst the great years have time to develop.
I think some drinkers feel the style is the product of a lot of wine making tricks, but then they admire the same thing in, for example Rostaing, or Burgundy. I agree that my sense is that the wine is heavily worked by the winemaker, but it is to a purpose and not virtuosity for its own sake (unlike, say, a Paganini piece) and I don't believe it obliterates the varietal or regional integrity of the wine - to the contrary, it gives a delightful expression to it. Good palates are divided, so you should see where you stand. That, in itself, seems to me to be a positive in a wine, when the wine itself is so good to drink.
I think it is also fair to note that my concerns about green characters are not shared by the clearly excellent palate of Erin Larkin (she does a You Tube channel that is not part of the Bogus Adventure), so don't be put off trying this. However, I will maintain that her slightly Elfin appearance suggests a sylvan setting and so she may miss the greenery about her. (2174 views) | | | Tasted by PKim on 12/9/2022: This tastes very different to other vintages
Intense but lighter frame
Peppery (white) ++ plus red fruits I really like this for its uniqueness
Really intrigued to see how this will age in medium to long term (1009 views) | | | Tasted by SlimShaney on 10/30/2022 & rated 93 points: Drink at 1 year old is a shame but hey I needed something to get me through an old Halloween movie on a warm evening. The sweet viognier lift is right there from the start and a rather watery wine makes it for easy drinking even at this age (963 views) |
| By Angus Hughson
Vinous, Clonakilla Shiraz Viognier 1994-2021 (Nov 2022) (11/1/2022)
(Clonakilla Shiraz Viognier Red) Subscribe to see review text. | By James Suckling
JamesSuckling.com (10/4/2022)
(Clonakilla Shiraz Viognier Canberra District , Red, Australia) Subscribe to see review text. | By James Halliday
Halliday Wine Companion (7/27/2022)
(Clonakilla Shiraz Viognier Canberra District) Subscribe to see review text. | By Mike Bennie
The WINEFRONT (5/11/2022)
(Clonakilla Shiraz Viognier) Subscribe to see review text. |
NOTE: Scores and reviews are the property of Vinous and JamesSuckling.com and Halliday Wine Companion and The WINEFRONT. (manage subscription channels) |
| Clonakilla Producer websiteClonakilla Shiraz ViognierTOP VINTAGES
2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2010, 2009, 2007,
2005, 2004, 2001, 1998, 1996, 1995, 1994.
Bottled exclusively under screwcap since the 2007 vintage.
complexity, dimension, natural balance and completeness.
Doctor John Kirk planted a vineyard at Murrumbateman near Canberra in 1971. Kirk also planted a small plot of viognier in the mid 1980s, and the Clonakilla Shiraz Viognier came about in 1992 when Kirk’s fourth son, Tim Kirk, co-fermented the viognier fruit with shiraz. He also included a tiny amount of pinot noir and mataro in the early trial blend.
The fruit is now sourced from the best shiraz and viogner parcels of the Murrumbateman Vineyard. Located on a gentle fold of the cool southern tablelands at 600 metres above sea level, the soils are granitic, with sandy brown
and red loams over friable clay.
THE WINEMAKING
Traditional Burgundian winemaking techniques are applied to showcase the fruit flavours. Post vinification the wine is matured in new (33%) and seasoned French oak for around one year.
THE WINE
This medium to full-bodied style is highly aromatic and typified by fresh ginger, white pepper, apricot and black cherry aromas, underlying savoury French oak and fine, slinky, dry tannins. The style develops more complexity and depth with age.Shiraz BlendViognierAustralia Wine Australia (Australian Wine and Brandy Corporation) | Australian Wines (Wikipedia)New South Walesd we’reSouthern New South WalesI |
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