Clare Valley
The Kilikanoon Story
THE KILIKANOON WINERY SITS CENTRALLY IN THE CLARE VALLEY WITH ACCESS TO FRUIT SOURCED FROM OVER 2000HA ACROSS SOUTH AUSTRALIA. KILIKANOON’S HOME, AND PRIMARY FOCUS, IS IN THE CLARE VALLEY WITH THE TASTING ROOM IN THE ORIGINAL WINEMAKERS COTTAGE IN THE SKILLY VALLEY. Kilikanoon has emerged as a significant member of the Clare Valley family, producing over 100,000 dozen and exporting to most major markets. The winery was launched in 1997 by winemaker Kevin Mitchell utilising 6ha of vines he owned with father Mort. Kevin planted and tended to Kilikanoon’s Golden Hillside suite of vineyards, including the famed Mort’s Block. The first Kilikanoon branded wines from the 1997 vintage were four single vineyard wines, each from Kevin and Mort’s vineyards. These were the ‘Oracle’ Shiraz, ‘Prodigal’ Grenache, ‘Blocks Road’ Cabernet and ‘Mort’s Block’ Watervale Riesling. Today the
30 drinks trade
range is far more extensive and a visit to the Kilikanoon tasting experience offers you the chance to explore through this fascinating region, described as the most diverse wine region in the world. This is because despite covering a relatively small area, the Clare Valley has numerous sub regions each exhibiting individual micro-climates that particularly favour Riesling, Shiraz, Cabernet and Grenache, while altitude variation from 300m to 600m also result in vastly different inf luences on the wines, including ripening and rainfall. The soils also vary significantly through the valley; from red brown ‘terra rossa’ over limestone, through to black
alluvial soils in low-lying areas. The diurnal temperature variation, hot days and cool nights, in Clare Valley is key to creating powerful and elegant wines, beautifully balanced with ripe fruit, natural acidity, tannin and oak. When tasting through the range of Kilikanoon wines it becomes apparent that the winemaking team led by Peter Warr and Kirby Graudins have quickly embraced the legacy left to them by Kevin Mitchell. They work closely with vineyard manager, Troy Van Dulken and his team of five, working though the highest quality grapes from the significant resource of vineyards at their disposal.
