His voice is as lilting and smooth as the wines he produces, his astute knowledge and eagerness to educate others testament to his background in teaching.

And underpinning it all is a religious faith so deep that he almost became a priest.

“Teaching at a Jesuit school, I had the opportunity every year to attend a prayer retreat. Every time I tried to reflect on the scriptures I found myself thinking about the best ways to manage Shiraz ferments. I asked my retreat director, ‘What am I supposed to do about this constant distraction?’ He replied, ‘Why do you assume it’s a distraction?’ Within six months I was back at Murrumbateman as Clonakilla winemaker and general manager.

He adds that there would have been a major downside to becoming a priest.

“I always felt I wanted to be a dad and be a family man,” Tim told the Tribune.

The father of five and his wife Lara are significant contributors to Augustine’s parish.

Clonakilla has continued to go from strength to strength, since Tim’s father John Kirk, a research scientist, planted the first vines in 1971.

The vineyard produces some of the most collectable wines in the country; you’ll find Clonakilla Shiraz Viognier served in Qantas First Class and at Australia’s finest restaurants.

The winery produces more than 12,000 cases of wine a year, most of which is bought through the cellar door, online or at wine specialists. It’s also exported to NZ, Ireland, the US, UK, Singapore, Hong Kong and Canada. Expansion is on the horizon with plans to build a new cellar door and upgrade onsite facilities.

He explains why Murrumbateman is the right place for Clonakilla:

“There are a few things that have to go right when you make wine: you have to have a good site – everything comes down to the quality of the grapes and the question is where can you effectively grow grapes that are going to produce beautiful fruit that will make beautiful wine?"

Murrumbateman is classed as a cool climate area.

“Because the altitude is 600 metres above sea level, it gives us a continental climatic effect.

Tim said this gave a greater range between daytime and night-time temperatures.

“When the temperature gets below 15 degrees, not much goes on inside the grape vines… So they need a longer period of time to get the same amount of ripening done…

“That extends the ripening window.

“It’s a longer, slower, more gentle process for the vines to accumulate the flavours and the sugars in the grapes…"

“The soil is also another key factor and we do have a variety of soils around the Murrumbateman area.”

The soils at Clonakilla are volcanic.

“The vines go through the top soil, through the clay layer and they get their roots down in this decomposed rock layer. And it’s a mysterious thing, but Shiraz in particular seems to really love that decomposed granitic rock,” he said.

“Shiraz responds very much to the environment in which it’s grown… Our Shirazes tend to be more medium-bodied… Instead of blackberries and blackcurrants, you’d think more of raspberries, cherries… slightly lighter and more fragrant."

His 2013 red harvest is displaying more floral characteristics.

“In a warm year like 2013, if you smell the wine we have in barrel now they smell like rose petals, they smell like violets, as well as having this gorgeous red-fruit-berry character.

“In a way [Murrumbateman] offers the Australian wine community, or, in fact, the international wine community, a very different take on what Shiraz is like.

“We are in the gun seat, so to speak, in this district, to produce exactly that cool-climate medium-bodied Shiraz that increasingly wine lovers in Australia - and in fact all over the world - are looking for.”

He is buoyed by the support of Yass Valley Council in keeping minimum lot sizes at 16 hectares in the sought-after Murrumbateman wine precinct, despite increasing demand for urban residential lots.

“They have… really thrown their support behind the wine industry and said that they really want the wine industry here in Murrumbateman to not just be protected but to thrive."

Tim believes it will be beneficial for the wider community.

“I think the Yass council has done something wonderful for the whole council area really, by saying that actually we want wine – and really high-end, top-quality wine – to be something this region is known and celebrated for into the future.

“… we really are onto something really exciting in the world of wine here in this area and at Clonakilla we’ve got plans to take it to the next level.”