There is no doubt vintage 2023 gave us some anxious moments.

The spring was so wet and cool that the vines were very reluctant to emerge from their winter sleep. When they did emerge, the shoots grew so slowly that I wondered whether the grapes would ever ripen.

Thankfully, the summer did finally arrive, and the vines embarked on the long but determined journey of ripening grapes through the warm late summer and mild but generally sunny autumn.

We ended up picking in mid-April, with the fruit exactly ripe and in excellent condition.

You really have to smell this wine to believe the intensity and purity of fruit we received in the 2023 Shiraz Viognier.

As Clonakilla SV goes, this vintage strikes me as archetypal, style-defining, the essence of cool-climate Shiraz. It is certainly beautiful; aromatically thrilling with a classically luminous, elegant palate.

98 points - "Put simply, this is one of Australia’s greatest wines, year after year, and one of only a handful that can be reliably called world class, without hesitation. It is also one of the world’s very best Shiraz Viognier blends, happily sitting beside the best from Cote Rotie. From a cool year, their third in a row, the blend is 94% Shiraz and 6% Viognier. 22% of the Shiraz was whole bunches and that was co-fermented with the Viognier, via wild yeasts. For maturation, the wine went into French oak barrels, both puncheons and barriques, with one-third of them new. Deep magenta, the nose exhibits all the joy and complexity that we have come to expect from this stellar wine. Focus, balance and seemingly endless length, this also has silky tannins and while there is an underlying exuberance with the fruit, everything is held in restraint. Cocoa powder, truffles, raspberries, spices, aniseed and tobacco leaves, the wine is utterly seamless with fifteen to twenty years ahead of it, with ease. Virtuoso winemaking resulting in a masterpiece." - Ken Gargett (Wine Pilot)

96 points - "The finesse of this release. The fragrance too, which leads to a palate where just enough, feels like extra. It’s buoyant, juicy and perfumed, with a wild party of spice notes flying through the wine like happiness itself, or like confetti, either way there’s an air here of celebration. This wine sits on the apex of the road, where the rain meets the oil. The fruit flavours have a water-colour aspect; the texture coats the flavour in satin. We’ve come to expect all the above from Clonakilla’s flagship wine. What’s special, for me, in this 2023 release is the web of tannin, as dewy as it is strong. There’s a weave to this release. It’s a masterpiece of twigs, nuts and strings. If Morricone had been a winemaker he’d have made something like this. Orchestral. Spellbinding. Itself. Abandon all resistance, ye who enter here." - Campbell Mattinson (The Wine Front)

96 points - "The colour is medium-deep with a good purple rim and the bouquet is detailed and fragrant, violets and roses, an entire spice cupboard of aromas, with dark cherry to blackberry fruit underpinning it all. The wine is supremely elegant on the palate, jusy medium to full bodied and finely textured with plentiful tannins that are fine-grained and supple, the finish long and refreshing. Effortless intensity and charm." - Huon Hooke (The Real Review)

96 points - "Just when we think we know the Clonakilla Shiraz Viognier style – all those red berries and rosehip aromatics – up pops a couple of cool years one after the other and with them a peppery spice explosion. Following on from the 2022 Shiraz Viognier comes another cooler-than-cool example where the drinker is treated to a wonderful world of spice, fully laden with heady black pepperiness. It’s a wow! Cherry, cranberry, bramble, sage, black pepper, rosemary and spice. It’s a chockful aroma attack. The aromatic intensity is heightened on the palate with black peppery spice a strong feature that also brings real energy, highlighting the bright cherry, red fruits and sage. Tannins are cherry pip savoury dry. Has class and medium-bodied elegance to burn but with a youthful personality that just keeps on going." - Jeni Port (Wine Pilot)

95 points - "The flagship is in fine form from this cool vintage, rendering it elegant and quite exotic. Plus, 22% whole bunches in the ferment make an impact. It’s a touch sappy yet laden with heady aromatics – all florals with a dusting of Middle Eastern spices such as sumac. Super peppery. The mid-weighted palate is tight and a touch lean with red fruit accents, bright acidity and fine if plentiful tannins. It’s a wine you keep coming back to as it reveals more and differently. It's lovely and enticing; it feels light and ethereal, deceptive. Time will reward the patient as this builds more complexity, but it is seriously hard to resist now." - Jane Faulkner (Halliday Wine Companion)