2008 Clonakilla Hilltops Shiraz

About the Wine:
A cool February lead into a very warm March with numerous days reaching thirty-five degrees Celsius. After the devastation of 2007 the vines came back with a vengeance in 2008 producing large crops of beautifully ripe fruit. Estate Shiraz picked between March 17 and 31. 6% Viognier and 20% whole bunches were included in the ferments. A three-day cool, preferment maceration lead into largely un-inoculated ferments with temperatures peaking around the 33⁰ mark. Twelve months in wood, 30% new, with Francois Freres, Sirugue, Taransaud and Mercurey again being our preferred coopers.

"Clonakilla shiraz viognier is often a beautiful drink straight out of the blocks – you can cellar it, but it provides a richly hedonistic drinking experience from the day of release. This 2008, though, is going to need some time. It’s a dense, headstrong wine, chocked with blackberry, soy, eucalypt and cherry-plum flavours and flecked with trademark pepper spice. It has all its components in place, but it isn’t up and running yet. What strikes you about the wine as a youngster though is its nebbiolo-like shape. I’ve not seen this in a Clonakilla shiraz-viognier before. It’s almost light through the middle, before being strong and authoritative through the finish. Lighter in flavour but stronger in impact, perhaps. It should be great as a mature wine."
95 Points - Campbell Mattinson, The Wine Front (2009)

Dark shiraz fruit, with blackberry, roasted meat and a gentle spice background; medium-bodied with serious intent, the tannins are ripe, the fruit juicy and the finish, long a savoury; lovely harmony.
94 Points - James Halliday, Halliday Wine Companion