Clonakilla O'Riada Shiraz 2021
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James
Suckling -
Robert
Parker
Product Details
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Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
The O’Riada is made from fruit picked from Clonakilla's estate vineyard and other excellent sites in Murrumbateman and Hall. It’s a quintessential Canberra Shiraz with notes of ripe red berries and plenty of spice.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Very classic shiraz character with green tobacco, clove, smoked meat, and blackberry aromas and flavors. Medium to full body. Chewy tannins that are polished and poised. Flavorful finish. Subtle and flavor. Drink or hold. Screw cap.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2021 O'Riada Shiraz is littered with peppercorns (green and pink), bramble, star anise, garden mint/nettles, strawberries and mandarin oil. There's a lot going on here. It is very elegantly structured, and lingering fruit through the finish makes for exciting, lovely drinking. It's pure, and clarity abounds. And there are strange inflections that bring pleasure. We know these Clonakilla wines age gracefully. I've given it 16 years. No doubt I'll laugh at my own prediction in 2037, as I drink a bottle, and smirk.
Other Vintages
2022-
Robert
Parker -
James
Suckling
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Wine
Enthusiast -
James
Suckling
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James
Suckling -
Wine
Spectator
Clonakilla was established in 1971 by John Kirk, a Canberra based research scientist. Of Irish descent, John came to Australia with his young family in 1968 to work with the CSIRO Division of Plant Industry. To his surprise despite the suitability of the environment their was no wine industry in there cool southern table lands of NSW around Canberra. To remedy this situation, in 1971 he bought a 44 acre farm near the village of Murrumbateman in New South Wales, 40 kilometres north of Canberra. The soil consisted of sandy clay loams over a friable clay subsoil and, with a climate not dissimilar to the Bordeaux region and Northern Rhone valley in France, he held high hopes for its wine producing potential. He proceeded to plant 1.2 acres each of Cabernet Sauvignon and Riesling. He named the property Clonakilla (‘meadow of the church’) after his grandfather’s farm in County Clare.
Marked by an unmistakable deep purple hue and savory aromatics, Syrah makes an intense, powerful and often age-worthy red. Native to the Northern Rhône, Syrah achieves its maximum potential in the steep village of Hermitage and plays an important component in the Red Rhône Blends of the south, adding color and structure to Grenache and Mourvèdre. Syrah is the most widely planted grape of Australia and is important in California and Washington. Sommelier Secret—Such a synergy these three create together, the Grenache, Syrah, Mourvedre trio often takes on the shorthand term, “GSM.”
A picturesque region brimming with energetic producers, Canberra’s boutique wineries are set among a backdrop of the Snowy Mountains. Similar to its northern neighbors of Hilltops and Orange, Canberra has an extreme continental climate with a hot, dry growing season and cold winters. The region produces outstanding Riesling, Chardonnay, Shiraz and Pinot Noir and is under a new wave of innovative young winemakers unafraid to explore alternative varieties.