Wine writer RICHARD CALVER is coaxed from under the doona with the promise of a special museum wine at Clonakilla.

RELUCTANCE to get out and about increases as the weather closes in. 

The Stomp weekend organised by the Canberra District Wine Industry Association was forecast to be cold, wet and windy. 

The forecast was regrettably accurate, but as I was being collected by friends, who had persuaded me to go with them on the Saturday of the two-day festival, I crawled from under the doona and donned my winter layers, trying not to let the mizzle outside affect my mood. 

I cheered myself up remembering the story of the weather reporter whose wife filed for divorce. It was not what he predicted. 

Our first stop was Clonakilla, as we were inveigled by the prospect of a taste of the 2013 Shiraz Viognier Museum Release, which sells for $150 a bottle. 

It was an excellent year for Canberra district wines, as we were later to find out when we were also lucky enough to taste the 2013 Four Winds shiraz, which was outstanding. 

Clonakilla’s Tim Kirk was named Australian Winemaker of the Year in 2013. Kirk is the son of the founder, Dr John Kirk, who established Clonakilla in 1971. The shiraz viognier has become an icon of the excellence of Canberra district wines. 

Clonakilla is viewed by many as the jewel in the crown of Canberra wines. In Halliday’s “Wine Atlas of Australia” he says this: “The quality of the wines is exceptional, none more so than the highly regarded shiraz viognier, which sells out so quickly every year that Kirk has introduced a second shiraz from the Hilltops region.” 

During Stomp, Clonakilla had three whites and seven reds on taste, with the last wine the museum release. 

The cellar door is a pleasant place to get out of the rain and the person who served us our glugs of wine was charming and knowledgeable. 

The 2022 viognier was the best of the whites. This varietal is known for its perfumed bouquet usually featuring peach and honeysuckle. The 2022 was indeed perfumed with a musk-stick lolly nose, the pink confection linked to childhood. 

While newly bottled, this wine was already mouth filling with a clean light acidity and, thankfully, just a hint of the musk that predominated on the nose. It’s one to put away and savour with goats’ cheese and fresh dates. 

Of course, the 2013 Museum Release was the best of the reds. It is a powerful wine, 14 per cent alcohol by volume. It had caramel on the nose and was silky in the mouth. The tannins were almost all gone so it didn’t have as much grip as anticipated, but the rich plum flavours showed this as a wine of quality. 

After Clonakilla we visited Four Winds where the 2013 riesling and shiraz were available to compare with the 2021 vintages: as with the Clonakilla offering, a good return on the $29.50 a ticket for Stomp. 

The 2013 shiraz was a wine for my taste. It had an earthy bouquet with a hint of liquorice (old wine and childhood lollies again!). It was not the velvet of the Clonakilla, but very rich and complex with a brambly black-fruit finish that surprised and delighted. Alas, there is not enough of the 2013 in stock for it to go on sale. 

Despite the lousy weather, my friends and I had a great time, ending the day at Dionysus Wines singing along with the three-piece band, banishing thoughts of the imminent bleakness of winter and thinking good thoughts about the celebration of Canberra’s wines. 

“Wine cheers the sad, revives the old, inspires the young, and makes weariness forget his toil.” 

–Lord Byron