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 inventive and original Clonakilla Shiraz Viognier takes Australian shiraz in a completely new direction. A combination of a mature vineyard site, faith in nature and near-religious winemaking philosophies has resulted in a distinctive wine of extraordinary aromatic complexity, dimension, natural balance and completeness.
98 Points James Halliday
The 2017 instalment of the Clonakilla Shiraz Viognier has a super complex array of white and black peppers, hard brown spices, leaves, flowers and fresh wet earth, as well as graphite-like dark stony notes. The palate is immaculately detailed, long and silky with flavors of blackberries, red cherries, red plums, dark cherries, blackberries and dark chocolate.