Tasting Report: The Life & Times of Clonakilla Shiraz Viognier
The year is 1991. Freddie Mercury has gone to the big disco in the sky, George W. Bush has launched Operation Desert Storm against Iraq, the Dead Sea Scrolls have been unveiled and Tim Kirk is in France’s Northern Rhône Valley, plotting to irreversibly change the destiny of Australian red wine.
No wine can lay claim to leading the Australian charge towards embracing cool-climate red winemaking more than Clonakilla’s iconic Shiraz Viognier. First made in 1992, it was inspired by the wines Kirk tasted on that visit to the Rhône and facilitated by the foresight of Tim’s father John, who established the Clonakilla vineyard in 1971 with shiraz and other varieties, adding viognier to the list in 1986.
The viognier established slowly, the first crop arriving in 1992 and thus the very first Côte Rotie-inspired Clonakilla red was born that same year, a blend of shiraz, pinot noir and one percent viognier. Tim Kirk also cites the late Dr. Bailey Carrodus of Yarra Yering who crafted his revered Dry Red No. 2 to the same style and composition.
Moving back to take on running the family vineyard and winemaking as a full-time pursuit in 1996, Kirk drove his beloved Shiraz Viognier to prominence through the end of that decade. The 1998 was stunning on release (and good bottles continue to impress today) and the 2001 similarly heralded by critics, trade and collectors alike. This wine also started drawing considerable attention to Canberra District wines as a source of fragrant, complex shiraz.
Cut to today and Kirk has 24 vintages of Shiraz Viognier to his name (the 25th vintage – 2016 – is being put to bed as I write) and Clonakilla has cemented a regular spot at the very top of both the Canberra District’s quality curve and the leading edge of modern Australian red wine.
These are wines that captivate when young and entrance when cellared for a decade or more. They remain faithful to terroir whilst wearing the vastly different tones of cooler and warmer vintages with ease, a characteristic that makes for highly engaging drinking and makes this wine a must for all collectors of great cool-climate syrah.
The latest vintage, 2015, is without a doubt the best to date in a long line of excellent vintages. And whilst the name and the vines may be comparatively newer, Clonakilla Shiraz Viognier is now every bit as important to the story of great Australian wine as Henschke Hill of Grace and Penfolds Grange.
Photos from top to bottom: Clonakilla cellar door; Tim Kirk of Clonakilla
Contributing Editor Nick Stock is a renowned Australian wine writer, author, presenter and filmmaker who reports on his worldwide wine tasting experiences for JamesSuckling.com.
