2023 Ravensworth Shiraz Viognier, Canberra District

Medium purple-ruby in appearance, with white pepper spice on the nose for days... Fruit too: red cherry, redcurrant, blueberry, violet florals, herbal notes, hints of menthol. It's medium-bodied in a classical cool-climate way, with juicy weight and grip and a juniper spice thread. Layers and layers of texture and interest. It's light on its feet and an excellent choice for the Australian summer. Drink 2025 to 2033.

95 points Melissa Moore for The Real Review, November 2025

It’s certainly a more restrained, nervy style for the flagship, with its cool elements of white and black pepper, raspberry leaf, some stemmy notes and barely ripe fruit plus lots of herbal tones. Tangy and tart fruits on the lighter-framed palate, sinewy tannins and loads of refreshing yet frisky acidity. This needs food to assuage all that. Drink 2026 to 2032.

92 points Jane Faulkner for Halliday Wine Companion, March 2026

The 2023 Shiraz Viognier is a distinct wine here. One really gets the sense of the Viognier, being floral and wet, green and verdant, as an aromatic overlay to the Shiraz fruit. The palate reveals finely wrought tannins and pure acidity—a significant part of the show. The shaley minerality is very attractive, and the wine overall feels herbal and fine, with lemon myrtle and raspberry leaf, white strawberry and apple. It matured in French oak, both barrique and 27-hectoliter foudre. Drink 2025 to 2033.

92 points Erin Larkin for The Wine Advocate, December 2025

Bryan Martin spent years as a winemaker at Clonakilla alongside Tim Kirk before establishing Ravensworth in 2001 at Murrumbateman in the Canberra District. The operation is deliberately small, built around a straw-bale cellar housing an eclectic collection of vessels — amphora, ceramic eggs, concrete and large oak foudres — each chosen for what it brings to a particular wine rather than aesthetic reasons alone. His philosophy stops short of the natural wine camp but leans firmly in that direction: no chemicals, no additives, minimal intervention, and a deep trust in fruit, site and the microflora that have been doing this work for millennia.

Shiraz Viognier is one of Ravensworth's signature wines. Just 3% Viognier is co-fermented with the Shiraz, added not for aromatics but for its different phenolic character, which works with the Shiraz to build a silky, distinctive texture. The 2023 harvest came in late April after a cool season. Fifteen percent whole bunches, the rest whole berry, 3–6 weeks on skins with indigenous yeast before pressing to new and used French barriques for 12 months, then transferred to large format foudre for a second year. Bottled May 2025, unfined and unfiltered.

The result is a wine of real aromatic intensity — white pepper, red cherry, redcurrant and violet on the nose with herbal, menthol and juniper spice threaded through. The palate is medium-bodied and finely structured, with sinewy tannins, bright acidity and a shaley mineral quality that gives it genuine lift and length.

A restrained, cool-climate Shiraz that rewards food and patience in equal measure. The wine's spice and fine tannins find a natural partner in something with herbs and depth: a lamb shoulder with Middle Eastern spices and flatbread, or a slow-braised chicken with preserved lemon and olives.

Drink now through 2033.