2018 Clonakilla, Shiraz Viognier, Canberra District, Australia
About this WINE
Clonakilla
Clonakilla was established in 1971 by John Kirk, a Canberra based research scientist of Irish descent. He bought a 44-acre farm near the village of Murrumbateman in New South Wales, 40 kilometres north of Canberra.He named the property Clonakilla (`meadow of the church') after his grandfather's farm in County Clare. He proceeded to plant 1.2 acres each of Cabernet Sauvignon and Riesling. and a further 1.2 acres of Shiraz, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir in 1972.
In 1996 John's son Tim left a career in school teaching to work full time in the family business as winemaker and general manager. In 1998 Tim and his wife Lara bought the 50-acre property next door and planted Shiraz and Viognier as well as a small olive grove on the warm north-east facing slope.
Clonakilla's speciality is their Northern Rhône blend of Shiraz with a touch of Viognier. This exquisite blend is most famously put to use in Côte Rôtie. The Hilltops Shiraz is a recent addition and is produced from fruit selected from three vineyards around the town of Young in New South Wales and displays all the character you would expect from a top Australian Shiraz with this producer.
Canberra District
The Canberra District is an emerging and rapidly growing winemaking region in southeastern Australia, surrounding the Australian Capital Territory (ACT), which houses the nation's capital, Canberra.
The region is renowned for its cool climate, ideal for producing elegant, aromatic white wines and complex, medium-bodied red wines. Warm summer days are followed by cool nights, which help grapes retain acidity and develop complex flavours. This climate is particularly well-suited for grape varieties such as Riesling, Chardonnay, Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Pinot Noir. The soils are varied, ranging from volcanic to limestone and clay-based.
While still relatively young compared to more established wine regions in Australia, the Canberra District has garnered significant recognition, having received numerous awards and accolades domestically and internationally, drawing attention to the region's potential as a producer of premium cool-climate wines.
Viognier
A white grape variety originating in the Northern Rhône and which in the last ten years has been increasingly planted in the Southern Rhône and the Languedoc.
It is a poor-yielding grape that is notoriously fickle to grow, being susceptible to a whole gamut of pests and diseases. Crucially it must be picked at optimum ripeness - if harvested too early and under-ripe the resulting wine can be thin, dilute and unbalanced, while if picked too late then the wine will lack the grape's distinctive peach and honeysuckle aroma. It is most successfully grown in the tiny appellations of Château-Grillet and Condrieu where it thrives on the distinctive arzelle granite-rich soils. It is also grown in Côte Rôtie where it lends aromatic richness to the wines when blended with Syrah.
Viognier has been on the charge in the Southern Rhône and the Languedoc throughout the 1990s and is now a key component of many white Côtes du Rhône. In Languedoc and Rousillon it is increasingly being bottled unblended and with notable success with richly fragrant wines redolent of overripe apricots and peaches and selling at a fraction of the price of their Northern Rhône cousins.
When is a wine ready to drink?
We provide drinking windows for all our wines. Alongside the drinking windows there is a bottle icon and a maturity stage. Bear in mind that the best time to drink a wine does also depend on your taste.
Not ready
These wines are very young. Whilst they're likely to have lots of intense flavours, their acidity or tannins may make them feel austere. Although it isn't "wrong" to drink these wines now, you are likely to miss out on a lot of complexity by not waiting for them to mature.
Ready - youthful
These wines are likely to have plenty of fruit flavours still and, for red wines, the tannins may well be quite noticeable. For those who prefer younger, fruitier wines, or if serving alongside a robust meal, these will be very enjoyable. If you choose to hold onto these wines, the fruit flavours will evolve into more savoury complexity.
Ready - at best
These wines are likely to have a beautiful balance of fruit, spice and savoury flavours. The acidity and tannins will have softened somewhat, and the wines will show plenty of complexity. For many, this is seen as the ideal time to drink and enjoy these wines. If you choose to hold onto these wines, they will become more savoury but not necessarily more complex.
Ready - mature
These wines are likely to have plenty of complexity, but the fruit flavours will have been almost completely replaced by savoury and spice notes. These wines may have a beautiful texture at this stage of maturity. There is lots to enjoy when drinking wines at this stage. Most of these wines will hold in this window for a few years, though at the very end of this drinking window, wines start to lose complexity and decline.
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