Clonakilla Euroka Park 2024

The Estate’s Euroka Park block was planted in 2007 and is home to four different clones of Shiraz, although for this wine they only included the Yalumba Eden Valley S3 clone. Experience has shown that this block is often the first Shiraz to ripen on the Estate. While the 2024 vintage was an excellent one, it was low yielding, so moving quickly to secure this wine would not be unwise. Just 650 bottles were made, so it really is severely limited. The team incorporated 22% whole bunches in the ferment and included 5.5% Viognier in the blend. Fermentation was with native yeasts and maturation in French oak barriques, 1/3rd new. Most of the final wine was actually used in the flagship Shiraz Viognier, however 500 litres went into a Taransaud puncheon for a further eight months. Blood red with a crimson rim, the nose offers the most interesting aromas, and no one could be blamed, if served this wine blind, should they mistake it for the Estate’s prestige Shiraz Viognier. There really is not much more than a wafer-thin difference in quality. On the nose, we have notes of florals, wild raspberries, bay leaves, rose petals, aniseed, truffles and cherries. A wine of the most imperious elegance and refinement, it finishes with the silkiest of tannins and immense length. A fifteen year proposition.

Ken Gargett

Contributor at Winepilot

Ken was born and bred in Brisbane, Queensland. He had a non-trendy, perfectly happy childhood, in a family convinced alcohol meant instant condemnation to Hades. But a break fishing on the Great Barrier Reef, and some good wine, started a serious obsession that eventually took over. It did not stop Ken being chastised later for drinking Pol champagne, disgusted he’d drink anything made by a Cambodian dictator. Now, Ken mostly writes on wine, champagne and spirits for various newspapers, magazines and books, but is perhaps best known for his work in The Courier Mail. He also has a little sideline writing on cigars, fishing, travel and food. When not writing, fly-fishing for trout in NZ or bonefish on the flats of Cuba, travelling or smoking cigars, he is no doubt following a variety of sporting teams – the occasionally glorious Queensland Reds rugby, the dysfunctional Washington Redskins, the dodgy Arsenal and especially revels in the world restored to its proper axis with the return of the Ashes to their rightful home.

Wine writer and critic