The search is well and truly on in Australia for a more classic shiraz. While nobody doubts that our export future will hinge on our ability to fashion sweet, spicy, ripe shirazes with almost as much American oak inside as science can dissolve in them, there’s a limit to how much of this species you can actually drink. So we search elsewhere, focusing our thoughts somewhere between the Rhone and the Riverlands, looking for new shirazes of generosity, finesse, balance and future. I found one the other week. Not that I’m the first, mind, but Clonakilla is still unknown to most Australian wine drinkers. Found nearby the village of Murrumbateman, just half an hour from our nation’s capital, Clonakilla was first developed by Dr John Kirk in 1971 as the Canberra region’s first commercial vineyard this century. Although the vineyard’s first wines were made from Riesling and Cabernet Sauvignon, fashioning a range of Germanic whites of varying sweetness or dryness depending on the season and some leafy, tight-knit reds, it’s with shiraz that Clonakilla moves into the big time. Although it’s not the first Australian winery to blend the Rhone Valley white grape viognier into its shiraz (Yarra Yering is owed that status), Clonakilla adopts this blend to fashion what is unquestionably Australia’s most Cote-Rotie-like shiraz: a fleshy, peppery, long and silky-smooth wine which goes on and on, with intense flavours and fine-grained astringency. The wine is fermented with the inclusion of whole bunches and is foot-trod in open fermenters before finishing in small new and used French oak, where it then remains for 18 months. No doubt contributing even more to the wine’s individuality is the small component of pinot noir, which since 1992 has found its way in as well. The pinot noir is usually harvested very ripe (around 14o Beaume) and contributes around 10% of the blend. Viognier, a white variety from the northern Rhone, is added in similar proportions, providing a floral lift and fleshiness to the palate. Having tasted a bottle of 1995 straight Clonakilla Viognier I’m able to say it’s the country’s most Rhone-ish attempt yet: rich, juicy and rounded, with classic nutty, orange-blossom flavours. The best of the Clonakilla Shiraz yet to be put into bottle is the 1994 vintage, whose yields were concentrated by spring frosts. The 1995 is a worthy successor, containing the most viognier of any release to date. Given that supplies are small, I suggest you contact the winery on (06) 227 5877 to arrange any future purchases.
