96 points - While Kirk’s shiraz viognier – about which you’ll hear more from me in coming months – is justly celebrated, this is a light he can keep under a bushel no longer. It is one of Australian wine’s biggest bargains. A exultation of berries and spice: raspberry, blackberry, sandalwood, mace. Sculpted detail, intricate and entwined. Tannins deployed in microfine granules." - Nick Ryan (The Weekend Australian)

95 points - "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." - Erin Larkin (The Wine Advocate)

94 points - "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." - Campbell Mattinson (The Wine Front)

94 points - "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." - JamesSuckling.com

Sean O’Riada is one of the heroes of modern Ireland. A talented musician and composer, he is credited with taking traditional Irish music out of the kitchens and pubs of Ireland and putting it on the concert stages of the world. He died, prematurely, in 1971, the year Clonakilla was established by John Kirk. He was John’s cousin.

The 2023 vintage was the third cool growing season in a row and our latest harvest in over a decade. The spring in particular was cool and wet and the vines were slow to get going. Thankfully some genuine warmth arrived towards the end of summer flowing into a gentle and generally sunny autumn, delivering some gorgeous flavours in the grapes.

The O’Riada is a quintessential Canberra Shiraz, fully charged with spice, floral notes and ripe red fruits.