Kilikanoon Oracle Shiraz 2007
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Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
Rich and ripe notes of licorice, dark cherries, mocha and chocolate dominate the nose. The expressive palate combines spiced bramble notes, licorice and French oak complexity. Plum and berry fruits integrate with firm tannins leading to a smooth finish. The natural acidity and subtle oak characters provide length, complexity and persistence.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
Sourced from Kilikanoon's home region of Clare, this is a lush, creamy-textured Shiraz of chocolately richness, balanced by notes of black olive, plum and mocha. It's intense but not overbearing, with lingering notes of dark fruit and spice on this finish. Drink now-2020.
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Wine Spectator
Dense, chewy and tightly packed, with smoky, peppery accents adding depth to the brooding blackberry and licorice flavors. The finish persists against a layer of tannins. Needs time to soften. Best after 2013. 1000 cases imported.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2007 Oracle Shiraz spent 22 months in 50% new French oak hogsheads. The wine’s brooding bouquet offers up notes of eucalyptus, dried herbs, spice box, and blueberry. On the palate the wine is full-bodied, structured, and a bit compact. The safest strategy is to consume this Shiraz over the next 5-6 years while the fruit holds.
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Wine & Spirits
Floral scents of currants and wild blueberry flavors give this a foresty feel, as does the fragrant eucalyptus spice. The tannins edge on coffee as the wine takes on air; they work the base notes while the fruit has more zest and lift. It’s a big wine that will stand up to braised lamb.
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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.