Kilikanoon Attunga 1865 Shiraz 2005
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Parker
Robert
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Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
Released only in years of exceptional quality, this wine offers amazing intensity andcomplexity, achievable only from vines of this age. Spicy plums, mocha and dark blueberriesare evident on the nose, followed by a rich, textural palate delivering sweet, mouthfillingberry fruits, clove spices and silky tannins. Wonderful finesse and persistence of flavor.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2005 Shiraz "Attunga 1865" is sourced from ungrafted vines planted in the Clare Valley in 1865. It spent 25 months in 100% new French oak hogsheads and was bottled unfined and unfiltered. Opaque purple/black, it reveals an ethereal bouquet of crushed rocks, acacia flowers, espresso, mocha, black cherry, and blackberry. This leads to a powerful, intense, yet elegant wine with a very long, seamless finish. This beautifully balanced effort will excite tasters over the next 25 years.
Other Vintages
2010-
Parker
Robert
Founded in 1997 by Kevin Mitchell, Kilikanoon is a boutique Clare Valley winery with an international reputation for producing regionally expressive, terroir-driven wines. The Kilikanoon property, featuring a circa 1860s stone cottage housing Kilikanoon tasting room, was originally settled by early English migrants who named it after an historic old mansion in Cornwall. On purchasing the property in the 1990s, Kevin Mitchell inherited 30 year old Shiraz, Cabernet, Grenache and Riesling vineyards, many of which were planted by his father, Mort, in the 1960s. Fifteen years on, with the addition of partners Nathan Waks, a principal cellist with the Sydney Symphony, and Bruce Baudinet, Managing Director of Oracle Estates, Kilikanoon is rated by US and Australian critics as one of the Clare Valley's outstanding wineries, producing bracingly intense and long-lived Rieslings, along with powerful, yet balanced, Shiraz, Grenache and Cabernet Sauvignon.
Marked by an unmistakable deep purple hue and savory aromatics, Syrah makes an intense, powerful and often age-worthy red. Native to the Northern Rhône, Syrah achieves its maximum potential in the steep village of Hermitage and plays an important component in the Red Rhône Blends of the south, adding color and structure to Grenache and Mourvèdre. Syrah is the most widely planted grape of Australia and is important in California and Washington. Sommelier Secret—Such a synergy these three create together, the Grenache, Syrah, Mourvedre trio often takes on the shorthand term, “GSM.”
The Clare Valley is actually a series of narrow north to south valleys, each with a different soil type and slightly different weather patterns along their stretch. In the southern heartland between Watervale and Auburn, there is mainly a crumbled, red clay loam soil called terra rossa and cool breezes come in from Gulf St. Vincent. A few miles north, in Polish Hill, is soft, red loam over clay; westerlies blowing in from the Spencer Gulf influece this area's climate.
The differences in soil, elevation, degree of slope and weather enable the region to produce some of Australia’s finest, aromatic, spicy and lime-pithy Rieslings, as well as excellent Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon and Malbec with ripe plummy fruit, good acid and big structure.
Clare Valley is an isolated farming country with a continental climate known for its warm and sunny days, followed by cool nights—perfect for wine grapes’ development of sugar and phenolic ripeness in conjunction with notable acidity levels.