Tasting
Every year at Clonakilla we fill a single fermenter with pure Shiraz from our North-East facing T and L vineyard.
The winemaking is kept as simple as possible. Whole berries are fermented warm by their own native yeasts. The 2010 spent three weeks macerating on skins and fifteen months maturing in French oak, a third new.
Murrumbateman is increasingly recognised as one of Australia’s great Shiraz regions. This wine demonstrates why.
Potent spice aromas, red berries, violets, wild game and black pepper lead onto a finely textured, medium bodied palate. A classic cool-climate Shiraz.
Drink over five to ten years.
Six bottles per customer.
Reviews
The pure, minerally Syrah from Clonakilla is a marvellous wine, with distinctive fine pepper and spice, graphite and dark stony aromas, gun-flint and a core of dark plum fruits.
"Terrific wine of terroir"
The palate's built on a sturdy tannin frame that has plenty of length and composed, elegant shape, essence-like purity and pepper-dusted plum and red fruits, with a spicy twist as oak chimes in. Terrific wine of terroir. 96
Nick Stock - The Age/SMH Good Wine Guide 2012
Bright, clear colour, fractionally more advanced (less purple) than the O'Riada; the bouquet is so perfectly balanced one is tempted to describe it as silky, which is a nonsense;
"exceptionally intense and energetic flavours"
whether or not that be the case, the palate certainly takes off in dramatic fashion, with exceptionally intense and energetic flavours of spice, red berries, blackberry and black pepper; if all this were not enough, the texture is outstanding, fruit, oak and tannins all harmoniously contributing.
97 points
James Halliday's Wine Companion 2013
