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Gary and Nick Farr are father and son, they make wine together but aren't afraid to go head to head when their opinions differ. Nick grew up amongst some of the world's most sacred vineyards, he knows about the land and found a magnificent little site, barely east of Lake Colac. Irrewarra is the vigneron's shangri-la, prepared for viticulture by generations of grazing and eons of the sobering south sea breezes, which stimulate vines to yield meagre harvests of parched little grapes, sleek of tannin and rich in flavour. Vintaged in excruciatingly limited lots, there are fully two styles of Irrewarra on offer, a grapefruit and oyster shell Chardonnay, a Pinot Noir of pasture and of place, both finished to delight the senses and to excite the most inscrutable.. It's irrewarra by farr»
Coonawarra graziers have access to the finest soils for viticulture. Doug Balnaves was born in the very heart of Coonawarra, quite near the sacred cricket pitch at Penola. An accomplished herdsman and shearer, Balnaves took up the challenge of planting vineyards in 1971. Working under the tutelage of legendary Coonawarra winemaker Bill Redman, Balnaves immersed himself in the culture of the vine, ultimately establishing a grande marque of Coonawarra and securing the inaugural presidency of the Coonawarra Vignerons Association. He remains a lifelong member of the Penola Pipe Band. For those who like their wines structured yet satin, powerful yet prettily perfumed, in the mouthfillingly muscular Coonawarra way, the Balnaves brand endures in the tradition of world.. The old sheep shearer's shanty»
Johann Gottfried Scholz served in the Prussian army as a battlefield bonesetter, before joining the great emigration of Lutherans from Silesia to Barossa Valley. After building a family homestead along the alluvial banks of Para River, Gottfried established a mixed farm of livestock and crops, fruit trees and grapevines, Semillon and Shiraz. His acumen at healing fractures and setting splints made Gottfried a leading local identity, as his homestead cottage evolved into the Barossa's very first private hospital. Over a century later, the exceptional quality of harvest from Gottfried's original homestead, made the fruit of Willows Vineyard, an essential component in the most memorable vintages of Peter Lehmann, Saltram and Kaiser Stuhl. Scholz are still in.. Savour the shiraz by scholz»

Clonakilla Hilltops Shiraz CONFIRM VINTAGE

Shiraz Hilltops New South Wales
Clonakilla were established by a Canberra research scientist in 1971, very near the New South Wales township of Murrumbateman. The soils here consist of sandy clay loams over a friable clay subsoil and, with a climate not dissimilar to Bordeaux and the northern Rhone Valley, there were high hopes for its viticultural potential. Loaded with ripe blackberry fruit pushed along by a late surge of blackcurrant and spice, the warmth of the autumn radiates through every part of this wine.
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Clonakilla
Clonakilla is a small, family winery dedicated to making distinctive, handcrafted wines, they can be hard to find but are worth the search

Clonakilla was established in 1971 by John Kirk, a Canberra based research scientist. Of Irish descent, John came to Australia with his young family in 1968 to work with the CSIRO Division of Plant Industry. To his surprise despite the suitability of the environment there was no wine industry in the cool southern table lands of NSW around Canberra. To remedy this situation, in 1971 he bought a 44 acre farm near the village of Murrumbateman in New South Wales, 40 kilometres north of Canberra. The soil consisted of sandy clay loams over a friable clay subsoil and, with a climate not dissimilar to the Bordeaux region and Northern Rhone valley in France, he held high hopes for its wine producing potential.

Clonakilla

He proceeded to plant 1.2 acres each of Cabernet Sauvignon and Riesling. He named the property Clonakilla (‘meadow of the church’) after his grandfather’s farm in County Clare. A further 1.2 acres of Shiraz, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir were planted in 1972 and the vines grew well, although some were lost in a drought in 1972-73. John persevered and produced the Canberra District’s first commercial vintage in 1976: a Riesling and a Cabernet Shiraz. It wasn’t until 1978 when a bore was sunk that larger plantings became feasible. From 1978 to the present the vineyard was gradually expanded with Shiraz, Viognier, Riesling and the Cabernet family, now making up the bulk of the vineyard.

At the end of 1996 John’s fourth son Tim left a career in school teaching to work full time in the family business as winemaker and general manager. In 1998 Tim and his wife Lara bought the 50 acre property next door and planted Shiraz and Viognier as well as a small olive grove on the warm north-east facing slope. Between the two properties there are now twenty two acres under vine with further plantings planned for the future.

Through the seventies and eighties the Cabernet and Shiraz were blended together in traditional Australian style. With the 1990 vintage Clonakilla decided to bottle the wines separately. The first Shiraz went on to win two gold, one silver and two trophies in only three showings. It was at this point that Clonakilla began to see the potential of Shiraz in the Canberra District.

Clonakilla

In 1991 Tim travelled to the Rhone Valley in France. There he tasted a number of impressive Shiraz wines including Marcel Guigal’s single vineyard blends of Shiraz and the rare white grape Viognier. Inspired by those wines Tim began including a small amount of Viognier in his own Shiraz as of 1992. The Viognier component now accounts for between five and ten percent and adds an intriguing floral dimension to the wine.

Clonakilla also started incorporating other winemaking approaches that were unashamedly borrowed from Rhone valley and Burgundian winemakers: inclusion of whole bunches in the ferments, pre-ferment maceration and French oak barrel maturation. More importantly he worked harder in the vineyard to open up the vine leaf canopies, limit yields and produce grapes with riper flavour profiles. The work began to yield some impressive results, with gold medals, trophies and numerous five-star reviews following in succession. It is this wine, the Shiraz Viognier, that has cemented Clonakilla's reputation as one of Australia’s top small wineries, having been named NSW Wine of the Year in 1999, Penguin Wine of the Year in 2002 and one of Australia’s top ten Shiraz (Gourmet Traveller Wine). It is ranked Outstanding in the prestigious Langton’s Classification of Australian Wine. It is one of only five Shiraz to receive a perfect rating in Jeremy Oliver’s Australian Wine Annual.

In 1998 Clonakilla began producing a straight Viognier, now seen as an Australian benchmark for the style. The Riesling and the Hilltops Shiraz are rising stars. The newly named Ballinderry, a Cabernet Sauvignon/Cabernet Franc/Merlot blend, made from some of the oldest vines on the property, is now also drawing critical acclaim. Clonakilla currently produce around 9000 cases of wine per year and you will find them at many of the best restaurants in the United Kingdom, Singapore and Hong Kong.

Clonakilla