2023 Clonakilla O’Riada Shiraz

The 2023 Clonakilla O’Riada Shiraz reflects a third consecutive cool growing season, marking the latest harvest in over a decade. A cool, wet spring delayed vine development, but late summer warmth and a gentle, sunny autumn allowed for excellent fruit ripening. This vintage delivers a quintessential Canberra Shiraz, brimming with spice, floral aromatics, and vibrant red fruit flavors.
Alc. 13%

Other Reviews....
A cool season, a cool wine. Highly perfumed with florals, black pepper, red fruits dipped in Middle Eastern spices and a whiff of bresaola. Barely mid-weighted, the fine sandpaper tannins add texture, with bright acidity adding a lift to the finish. It’s hard to resist now. Drink 2024-2033.
93 Points
Jane Faulkner - Halliday's Australian Wine Companion

Savory and perfumed aromas of blood plums, dark cherries, tobacco and rose petals on the nose. The full-bodied palate has finely integrated tannins and bright acidity, giving notes of licorice, dried herbs, wet stone and bark. Gentle and pretty with an underlying power that will age gracefully. Drink or hold. Screw cap.
94 Points
JamesSuckling.com

The 2023 O’Riada Shiraz is perfumed and floral right out of the blocks: rose petals, petrichor, a drift of arnica/licorice, white chocolate and sweet tobacco. The wine is attractive and perfumed in the mouth as well, and the tannins are finely wrought. The wine finishes with a slight inflection of dried mint, but this is a gorgeous thing and comes highly recommended. 13% alcohol, sealed under screw cap. Drink 2024 - 2033.
95 Points
Erin Larkin - Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

Every vintage, for a while there, seemed to be the “earliest on record”. 2023 was the third cool Canberra season in a row, and was the latest harvest in over a decade. O’Riada Shiraz is grown on both Clonakilla’s estate vineyard, and on other Murrumbateman/Canberra District sites.
I cannot fault this wine. It’s so well spiced, without being excessively so. It’s rushed with cherry-plum fruit, it’s both refreshing and satiny, it folds, carefully, cedarwood and deli-meat into the fruit, and the tannin is a masterclass of the fine, filigreed kind. After all that, or over-arching it, is the fact that it’s a delightful drink, pretty, floral, solid where it needs to be, bright and balanced. Personally I’d have no hesitation in buying this wine. Drink 2025 - 2035+
94 Points
Campbell Mattinson - The Wine Front

Cool climate Shiraz from the Canberra district, the wine is a tribute to an Irish hero, Sean O’Riada, a musician who took their traditional music to the world. Sean was John Kirk’s cousin – John is the founder of Clonakilla and father of current winemaker, Tim. Sean passed away in 1971, the same year as John founded Clonakilla. From a cool year, the wine includes both estate fruit and that sourced from nearby Murrumbateman and Hall. A vibrant crimson, this is a stunning cool climate Shiraz and wonderful value. Given the limited nature of the Shiraz Viognier, this is more than ideal for filling the gaps. Spices, florals, a flicker of animal skins, red fruits, cloves, red cherries and mulberries. A wine which is carefully crafted, with line and length and immaculate balance and the finest of tannins, it is, however, the gorgeous spice notes which are to the fore. Drink over the next eight to ten years.
95 Points
Ken Gargett - WinePilot.com