John Kirk planted his first vines at Murrumbateman in the Canberra District in 1971 and named his winery Clonakilla, meani… ng 'meadow of the church', after his grandfather's farm in County Clare, Ireland.
Eschewing the traditional Australian Cabernet Shiraz blend, John set about crafting single varietal Shiraz. After a visit to Guigal winery in the Rhône Valley's Côte Rôtie in 1991, John's son Tim returned to Australia and started to experiment in the winery, co-fermenting Shiraz with a small
