Winemaker Notes
The 2022 O’Riada is made from fruit picked from the estate vineyard and other fine sites in Murrumbateman and Hall. It's a quintessential Canberra Shiraz, medium-bodied with red berry and floral themes and plenty of cool-climate spice.
Blend: 95% Shiraz, 5% Viognier
Professional Ratings
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Australian Wine Companion
I like what cooler vintages deliver to shiraz grown in a cool climate and made by people who are skilled. There’s a fineness, a pepperiness, a zestiness and vivacity. It’s fragrant with florals, a whiff of cured meats; it’s lithe with sandy tannins and has a gentle sway across the medium-bodied palate. Super refreshing, mouth-watering and best in its youth although it’ll last another decade, largely thanks to the acidity.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2022 O’Riada Shiraz is made from fruit picked from the Clonakilla estate and other vineyards in Murrumbateman and Hall. The 2022 season was cool and long, like its predecessor, 2021. On the nose, there are notes of pink musk sticks and rose petals, blood, black cherry, pastrami and iodine. In the mouth, the wine is everything that the nose has promised—vibrant, alive, delicious, exciting and shaped by very fine pumice stone tannins. Gentle dust and brush sway through the finish. What a lovely wine.
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James Suckling
A very delicate, diaphanous and dainty O'Riada in this cooler year. I thought it was a bit too light on my first tasting, but a revisit a day later saw it grow in stature. White peppercorn, musk, lilac, a hint of spiced salumi and redder fruits this vintage, over blue or black. Almost a wine for the Burgundy drinker, to be positive. The chiffon tannins, stretch nicely across the palate. Could use just a bit more mid-palate stuffing, to be critical.
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.”
A picturesque region brimming with energetic producers, Canberra’s boutique wineries are set among a backdrop of the Snowy Mountains. Similar to its northern neighbors of Hilltops and Orange, Canberra has an extreme continental climate with a hot, dry growing season and cold winters. The region produces outstanding Riesling, Chardonnay, Shiraz and Pinot Noir and is under a new wave of innovative young winemakers unafraid to explore alternative varieties.