International Shiraz Day – Domaine Clarendon
Join us in celebrating the Domaine Clarendon Vineyard for International Shiraz Day.
In the year 2003, Roman Bratasiuk embarked on a wine-growing odyssey in the highest reaches of Clarendon, McLaren Vale. The winemaker-designed vineyard was unlike anything ever proposed in Australian viticulture to date. The quest was to highlight the ancient Clarendon terror with fidelity and grace. All conventions were thrown out the window during the design process and instead of the typical, commercially trellised vineyard design, seen across Australia, with a trunk and perpendicular laterals and even double and triple tiers on highly geared sites, Roman would opt for single stake vines that effectively perform like a large bush vines and provide extremely low yields of extraordinary fruit that would showcase the splendour of the ancient Clarendon rocks. It would take a few painstaking years to get the entire property planted to over 36,000 individual, single-stake, non-cordon trellised vines but it was a labour of love as it was the first vineyard Clarendon Hills had ever planted. It would become the highest elevated vineyard of McLaren Vale at 350mtrs. Clarendon is famously the coolest part of McLaren Vale; with the Main Street of Clarendon dividing the Adelaide Hills cool climate wine region boundary with McLaren Vale’s regional boundary. It is a high altitude up here and is often later to harvest due to this feature. The soils too are very austere and very rocky and this is the inspiration for the vineyard terroir as its high ironstone content forges wine of phenomenal power and mineral detail.
Roman had sourced cuttings of the famed Astralis vineyard and purchased a special property in Clarendon to undertake this adventure. His belief was that one day it would become our biggest and best vineyard. Enter Domaine Clarendon Syrah. In France, the word Domaine is reserved for the nexus when the winemaker, grape grower and vineyard owner all overlap. The title is a deliberate nod of the cap to the French for inventing such a term that perfectly describes our project here. The entire site was planted to pre-clonal Syrah and subsequently, Domaine Clarendon Syrah organically evolved and the first vintage was in 2009. And it sold out fast! Emirates took a lot for their Business Class wine service and the brand was immediately away. The brand has now penetrated 1000’s of restaurants and retailers worldwide and is now our most popular wine in the portfolio due to its high quality to price ratio.
Each of the 36,000 vines is hand-pruned and also hand-picked. The fruit is wild yeast fermented in stainless steel tanks and spends 18 months in a myriad of new and older French Oak barriques from Burgundy and Bordeaux.
The high altitude conditions impart iodine, graphite and chocolate flavours to the otherwise savoury flavours of black olive and earth. The style is classically composed and light as a feather yet deeply wound and highly detailed. The blue capsule comes form the 1953 Grange which famously has an identical light blue, short capsule. A tribute to the moment of discovery Roman experienced as a younger wine enthusiast who stumbled over the wine and in many ways inspired. Roman in his early days.
Below are some of the latest comments from 3 of the leading wine writers in the world:
“The 2022 Domaine Clarendon Syrah is all black spice and tannin, crushed rocks and petrichor, minerals and black fruits. An excellent wine, it is elegant, chewy, supple and saturated in fruit flavor yet draped over a pliable framework of chewy tannin. This is a ripper and an unassailably great value at $40 AUD. 14% alcohol, sealed under Diam.”
94+/100 Erin Larkin, Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate May 2024, 2022 Domaine Clarendon Syrah
“Crafted with cuttings from the esteemed Astralis vineyard. Full-bodied but tingling with energy on the nose. Iodine, black forest berries and scintillating concentration without any sense of being heavy. Tautly wound and explosive. A great curtain opener. Drink or hold.”
94/100 Ned Goodwin MW, James Suckling.com March 2024, 2022 Domaine Clarendon Syrah
“From the highest vineyard in McLaren Vale at 350m; 70/30% seasoned/new French oak. Pulpy and open, a wash of boysenberry, lilac and violet, iodine and brambly wild fruits, blackberry pastille, soft licorice, black tea and potpourri. This is meaty and intense, loaded with character and the typically drying, long-drawing tannins of this address, but there’s plenty of fruitful levity and an appealing peppery savouriness through the finish.”
94/100 Marcus Ellis, Wine Companion March 2024, 2021 Domaine Clarendon Syrah