Ranked #4 of 18 2012 Shiraz from Canberra District
94/100
4.5 Stars
Huon Hooke
Deepish purple/red colour, bright and vibrant. Intense, concentrated, white pepper spice aromas, the flavours and aromas are classic cool-climate shiraz without viognier influence. It built a touch of gumleaf with extended airing. The intensity of focused, medium-bodied but powerful palate flavour is impressive and delicious. Great length follows an emphatic finish. Quite high acid and not exactly rich, but has gorgeous harmony and exquisite flavour. Superb wine.
Tasted: 17/11/2013
Drink: 2013 to 2037
94 Points Robert Parker
Deep garnet-purple in color, the 2012 Murrumbateman Syrah reveals a stunning nose, red fruits, black pepper, cardamom, exotic spices and violets – it is so perfumed it smells like it has Viognier! Medium to full-bodied and packed to the rafters with flavor, this very young wine has firm, very fine tannin to frame and shows wonderful poise through the very long finish. 137 cases were made. Drink it now to 2030+.
Source: Robert Parker (Robert Parker Wine Advocate) by Lisa Perrotti-Brown. June, 2014
96 Points James Halliday
A tiny production from Tim and Lara Kirk's vineyard, testimony to the ethereal, exotic fragrance of Clonakilla shiraz without a drop of viognier. Intense white pepper leaps from a core of fennel, greengage plum and blackberry, cool and edgy yet gracefully harmonious. Mineral tannins draw structure from ancient granitic soils. Drink to 2032.
Tyson Stelzer. June, 2023
96 Points Tyson Stelzer
This single fermenter and 150 dozen bottles is a tiny yet loud proclamation that there''s more to Clonakilla than shiraz viognier. Intense white pepper is a character that earmarks some of the finest cool climate shiraz regions on earth, and it leaps in ethereal, exotic proportions from this Clonakilla. A glorious nose of pepper, fennel, greengage plum and blackberries throws to an impeccably structured palate of fine-grained, mineral tannins that somehow draw their structure from the granitic soils of this cool site. Impeccable persistence of understated black plum and dark cherry fruit lingers amidst lively acid structure and layers of ethereal, exotic spice. A cool, edgy, almost stalky demeanour opens into an impeccably ripe finish of graceful harmony. Don''t miss an incredible Clonakilla Syrah with a long future before it. Drink 2022 - 2032.
Source: Tyson Stelzer.