2024 Clonakilla Shiraz Viognier, Canberra District

If one may start with the bottom line, the only reason that this one didn’t get 100 points is because there would seem to be every chance that Tim Kirk will continue to outdo himself and come up with something even better. Mind you, looking at this wine, it is hard to imagine how he will do that. As always, this sits amongst the world’s very best Shiraz Viognier blends. It must also sit amongst the very best releases of this particular wine. World class. Deep and dark purple in hue, this is full of black fruits, black cherries, florals, cassis, leather, mocha, truffles, raspberries, aniseed and tobacco leaves. Immaculate balance, extraordinary length, a seductive texture and the silkiest of tannins, it will provide immense pleasure for at least the next two decades. The previous vintage was a masterpiece. This one tops it. Drink 2025 to 2045.

99 points Ken Gargett for Wine Pilot, April 2026

This release comes off two cool La Nina growing seasons and marks a return to a savory and earth-driven style. Aromas of red cherries, raspberries, rose petals, graphite, white pepper, sandalwood and citrus peel. The palate is medium-bodied with silky tannins and bright acidity, offering a vibrant, finely textured mouthfeel with a long, perfumed finish. Elegant and precise with real clarity, showing all the hallmarks and charm of the Northern Rhone. Excellent. Drink or hold.

98 points James Suckling, July 2025

Enchanting aromatics unfold in the glass to reveal a wine of immense complexity and grace. Whole-bunch-derived green bean tones are quick to melt into an array of spices — black pepper, star anise, dried bay leaf, green peppercorn, clove — while elegant fruit lingers beneath in the form of blackberry and black cherry. Whispers of black olive in brine, and an emerging sweep of dried violet whose florality lifts with time in the glass, bringing pretty tones into an otherwise dark-fruited and spice-led perfume. The palate has a cool, mineral feel with svelness and elegance throughout: blueberry, steminess, olive tapenade, black cherry, black pepper. It glides through the mouth with effortless lift and anchoring intensity. The tannins are fine and integrated but firm in their framing, while ribbons of cool acidity help pull this to seemingly endless length. Olive tapenade and exotic spice permeate the mouth perfume. The detail, the elegance, the intensity, the length — this is a wine of class and quiet confidence. The term ‘national treasure’ came to mind. Outstanding.

97 points Tom Kline for Wine Pilot, April 2026

Good depth of bright translucent purple colour; reserved spicy aromas, the palate deliciously flavoured with concentration and fruit sweetness, there is violet and blackberry, a touch of pepper, a powerful wine of focused intensity and terrific length. Juicy middle surrounded by fine grained balancing tannins. Already has lovely drinkability. Superb shiraz. A riper and more powerful vintage of this wine. Drink 2025 to 2045.

97 points Huon Hooke for The Real Review, June 2025

The 2024 Shiraz Viognier is so perfumed from the glass, with notes of orange blossom and Boscobel rose, raspberry seed and peppercorns. The wine is delicately layered, spicy and medium-bodied, with so many nuanced levels of texture and flavor. In youth, these wines express floral detail and an orange-peel lift, while with age, they begin to show meaty nuances and ethereal, dried-rose-petal complexity. I love this wine in pretty much every vintage condition; it varies each year, but it remains true to its fine, complex DNA. This is super. Drink 2025 to 2044.

97 points Erin Larkin for The Wine Advocate September 2025

A note from Tim Kirk says ’24 turned out to be heartbreaking and brilliant. The former because frost in October caused significant damage, the latter because 'the fruit that survived delivered powerful aromas and intense flavour.' This is splendid, and yes powerful in flavour and structure, yet reined in by poised if plentiful tannins. Abundantly floral, with pepper, black cherries and plums, soy sauce and spicy oak. It’s full bodied, rich and ripe yet comes out complex and contained. Drink 2025 to 2035.

96 points Jane Faulkner for Halliday Wine Companion, September 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. It was Tim who, after visiting Domaine Guigal in the Côte-Rôtie in 1991, introduced the Clonakilla wine that Australia did not know it needed: the Shiraz Viognier. Over three decades it has become an Australian benchmark of cool-climate reds, and a wine with its own recognisable DNA that shifts with each season without losing itself.

Clonakilla's home vineyard sits at 600 metres above sea level near Murrumbateman on decomposed granite soils, and the combination of altitude, significant diurnal temperature variation and cool nights defines the elegant, aromatic and precise house style.

The 2024 vintage began with October frosts that severely reduced yields. It was a heartbreaking start to a season that ultimately was to become, in Tim Kirk's own words, glorious. Winemaking followed the established approach: 6% Viognier co-fermented with the Shiraz, 20% whole bunches included in the ferment, wild yeast fermentation, gentle extraction, and 12 months in French oak barriques and puncheons.

This wine has extraordinary perfume and layered intensity. The nose offers orange blossom, rose, raspberry and peppercorn, with the cool-climate spice and savoury depth that the site delivers year after year. The palate is medium-bodied with silky, fine-grained tannins, bright acidity and great length.

The wine's aromatic lift, cool-climate spice and savoury depth are at home wherever the cooking is complex and the flavours are layered. Peking duck or a rich Japanese wagyu sukiyaki would both be ideal partners here, as would a luxurious game pie of venison or duck. The wine's spice, perfume and fine tannins find a willing partner in any of the above.

Accessible now, but with many years ahead of it.