Winemaker Notes
To the eye the wine is an intense, inky/crimson red with distinct youthful, purple hues.
The aroma has lifted sweet plum and berry fruits combined and integratde with menthol, char and smoky oak characters.
On the palate its a great example of a full-bodied Clare Valley Shiraz, the palate being richly layered and textured. Chocolate and plum fruits create sweetness with classy French and American oak integrates and supports providing seamless length and flavour persistence.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
The 2006 Covenant Shiraz, drawn from Kilikanoon's base in the Clare Valley, adds some savory, herbal notes vaguely reminiscent of rhubarb to a lush, creamy base built on blueberry-blackberry fruit and hints of licorice and espresso. Concentrated and long on the finish, gradually turning from creamy to slightly dusty in texture. Drink now-2020.
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Wine Spectator
This firm red shows fascinating cola and coffee overtones to its cherry and raspberry flavors, picking up a mineral note as the finish rolls on and on. Offers depth and transparency. Best from 2012 through 2020.
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.