2024 Clonakilla O'Riada Shiraz, Canberra District

Given the fruit is off the estate and from three other properties, this is an excellent drink, in a finer style. A gorgeous purple-red hue and so fragrant with florals and red fruits (from raspberries to currants) all doused with baking spices and a sprinkle of black pepper. The palate is barely mid-weighted yet finely tuned with silty tannins and acidity that gives life. Up there as one of the best O’Riadas to date. Drink 2025 to 2034.

95 points Jane Faulkner for Halliday Wine Companion (Special Value), November 2025

This has to be a contender for best value wine of the year and is also compelling evidence of just how good the 2024 vintage was for the Canberra region. 20% whole bunch inclusion before twelve months maturation in French oak barriques, 25% of which were new. A vibrant crimson/magenta hue, the wine is very much from the bright and lifted end of the spectrum. The nose gives us notes of cassis, chocolate, blackberries, spice and plums with excellent oak integration throughout. Seamless in structure, this is exquisitely balanced with impressive length, through to silky tannins. A ten year proposition. This is always an exciting wine but this release surely has to sit amongst the very best. Drink 2025 to 2035.

94 points Ken Gargett for Wine Pilot, October 2025

Sweet raspberry coulis, red cherry and cranberry leap from the glass, followed by a lovely countervailing of balsamic, wood smoke and woody baking spices — nutmeg, cassia bark. Things deepen with air to show cocoa powder, subtle dark chocolate, blackberry and gentle plum. Very alluring and complex. The palate is lifted and vibrant while maintaining intensity; it glides across the mouth with sweet spice, plum, blackberry, cherry cola and cocoa powder. Elegant and intense at once, with grainy, fine-but-firm integrated tannins. Cocoa powder bitterness permeates a long finish where the acid surges and rolls in waves. A classy O’Riada, and a classy wine in and of itself. Spend circa $48, cellar it, and enjoy the reward.

94 points Tom Kline for Wine Pilot, April 2026

Bright ruby-purple, with white pepper spice and vanilla oak over ripe fruits-of-the-forest red and blue berry fruit, and a savoury herbal note. The palate is ripe, almost sweetly fruited in a medium-bodied frame, with juicy fine acidity and assertive tannins shouldering a long fruit-and-vanillin cedar finish. Approachable now but safe to stash away for a number of years. Drink 2025 to 2032.

91 points Melissa Moore for The Real Review, November 2025

Clonakilla was founded in 1971 by Dr John Kirk, an Irish-born CSIRO research scientist who planted the first vines in what would become the Canberra District. His son Tim Kirk has been chief winemaker since the late 1990s. He has guided Clonakilla to become one of Australia's most admired family wineries, with an approach that puts elegance, site expression and restraint ahead of power.

O'Riada is named after John Kirk's cousin Sean O'Riada who passed away in 1971, the year Clonakilla was founded. He was an Irish composer and the man credited with bringing traditional Irish music from the pubs and kitchens of Ireland to the concert stage. The wine is a regional Canberra District blend of the home vineyard and three grower sites. Winemaking includes 20% whole bunches in the ferment, up to three weeks on skins, and 12 months in predominantly seasoned French oak barrels.

The 2024 vintage was beautiful for the region, with good spring rain, warm summer days, cool nights and a glorious early autumn. The result is a quintessential Canberra Shiraz: fragrant and spice-driven, with raspberry, red currant, dark cherry and baking spice on the nose and a thread of black pepper throughout. The palate is barely mid-weighted but finely tuned, with silty tannins, bright acidity and excellent length. Elegant and intense at once.

Drinks superbly now while rewarding a few years in the cellar. Duck breast with five spice and bok choy would be our pick to cook for this.

Drink now through 2030.