Ok WAIT. Did you miss Clonakilla during the Marathon?? Because Agent Cru powered through SIX HOURS of live feed and this one landed near the end in the lineup. Easy to miss. IMPOSSIBLE to forget.

We might even have the feed still up on YouTube, but fast forward to the end, and watch us! Watch our faces when our noses get the first explosion of aromatics! Watch..because we didn’t spit anything out! Watch as we experience our full-on When Harry Met Sally moment. “Yes. YES. YES!!”

$79 here. Fifty-six dollars OFF a 98 Pointer with a slew of high pointers following that redefined the syrah/shiraz category in Australia.

Agent BlanC? LOVED IT. Agent Rotie? HUGE FAN. Agent Noir? - LOVED IT and Agent Lees’ personal pick of the ENTIRE DAY. It was distracting watching her in the corner dancing in her chair! That’s our full team just doing yum yums on the live feed and in the chatter feed! Much like the muppets going full on party mode..sadly Agent Cru’s friend Pierre had too much to drink and was suffering a mild concussion from all of the darts, so he was out.

Oh and the cork vs. screw cap debate??

Agent Noir called it: the Stelvin is straight-up SUPERIOR TECHNOLOGY that has been tested. Premium producers who use luxury screw caps do so to make sure you get the wine exactly how the winemaker intended for the wine to be presented.

DIAM corks also have superior cork technology as well, but are more widely used in Europe, with more wineries here in the states using them to. They are extremely expensive using compressed cork.

The real debate is personal preference and how you like your wine aged? There is no right way or wrong way, but the most important take away is that premium and luxury wine producers would not be using Stelvin (screw cap) technology if it put their very expensive flagship wines at risk. The Stelvin has been tested and proven.

“Put simply, this is one of Australia’s greatest wines, year after year,” - The Wine Pilot

This one’s a mic drop…

It is the most Côte-Rôtie like pepper-monkey, highly aromatic, perfumed, blue-fruited, floral EXPLOSION of a Shiraz (err, style is like Northern Rhone Syrah), you will find outside of France. No debate. None. ZERO. Cool Climate Syrah..oops SHIRAZ rules! Do not let this one slip by.

Tim Kirk trained at Domaine Guigal in Côte-Rôtie, came home to Canberra, and has been producing the most Côte-Rôtie like wines since 1992.

For those not familiar with Domaine Guigal in Côte-Rôtie, it is in the Northern Rhône region that set the global standard for Shiraz Viognier and the most sought after! Ken Gargett at The Wine Pilot gave it 98 points and put it plainly: “one of the world’s very best Shiraz Viognier blends, happily sitting beside the best from Côte-Rôtie.” Beside the best from Côte-Rôtie. Not inspired by. Not reminiscent of. BESIDE.

Clonakilla wines are hands down some of our favorite cool climate wines coming out of Australia these days. We hear Agent Lee’s even has quite the collection of these beauties stocked away herself. She said that this wine is silky, aromatic, floral, focused and seamless. She has several vintages stashed in a cellar away from home, so she won’t be tempted to drink them all.

94% Shiraz, 6% co-fermented Viognier. Wild yeasts. 22% whole bunches. French oak. 13% alcohol. This is a precision instrument, not a fruit bomb and has another 15-20 years ahead of it easily.

- Wine Advocate writes ”superb beauty of a thing. This takes svelte to a whole new level.”

- The Wall Street Journal praises “it is certainly one of the greatest Shiraz’s.”

Deeply perfumed dark red fruit on the nose, lifted and focused, with a thread of florals and something almost mineral underneath. On the palate, silky fine tannins so tightly woven you feel the structure before you register the weight. The finish is long and layered and keeps shifting.

$79. Fifty-six dollars OFF, SRP $135 One of Australia’s great red wines. The Guigal-trained, WSJ-anointed, 98-point STEAL is live.

The wine critics have so much to say! Make sure you have time to read it all! 😊

98 Points - The Wine Pilot - “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. Drink 2024-2044.”

97 Points - Wine Advocate - ”The 2023 Shiraz Viognier leads with wet garden rose, sage, apricot, raspberry, pomegranate and blueberry. The wine is bloody, mineral, very fine and with a honed, wet stone feeling to the tannins. I’ve tasted Pinot today with bigger, more loose-weave tannins than this superb beauty of a thing. This takes svelte to a whole new level. Once again, this is highly recommended. It’s one of my favorite Shirazes from this great country. It is made with 6% co-fermented Viognier. 13% alcohol, sealed under screw cap. Drink 2024-2043.”

96 Points - James Suckling - ”Lifted, perfumed and complex aromas of damson plums, sandalwood, cocoa, rose hips and dark cherries. The palate is lush with a full-bodied mouthfeel, finely integrated tannins and bright acidity, giving notes of wild blackberries, baking spices, wet stones and orange rind. Exceptional balance of finesse and power.”

96 Points - The Wine Front - ”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. Drink 2025-2040+.”

95 Points - Halliday Wine Companion - ”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. Drink 2024-2035.”