Killa Clonakilla 2003

[Musigny 151]

Around 2005, I was in Canberra to do a judging of Australian wines, and we did a side trip to the Clonakilla winery. Very impressed, I bought a few bottles of this, and tasted it a few years later, finding it a little monolithic. I decided to open one tonight. Routine weekend dinner, left over Coq au Vin from last night. I can’t say I had high expectations, but from the initial pouring into decanter to a couple of hours later, the wine went from very good, to extremely good to wonderful. And the synergy between wine and chicken was nigh on perfect.

The label tells me 2003 was hot in Canberra, but you would never know from the wine. Bright red fruit, spices, leather and some apricot at the core, no doubt from the 7% Viognier in the blend. Perhaps the most surprising thing and yet what made this special was its length, drawn out and multilayered. Served blind, I doubt whether I would have come within 10,000 miles of the placing it, figuring it for a Northern Rhone Syrah. 95

[Nicklasss]

These are some of the greatest moment with wine : no/low expectations, and the wine caught you off guard to let you think "this is great, how come"?

Nice report and lroduced a bit north of Caberra, i guess it is not a too warm area?

I went to Australia in 2008 and went to the Hunter Valley. Had some 12.5 % alcohol syrah wines that were excellent, but some semillon wines were great, remember the the top semillon from Tyrrell's.