2019 was an exceptional vintage with a perfect fruit set in the Spring followed by a hot settled summer and practically no rain during the harvest months. Fruit for the Man O’ War Estate Syrah comes predominantly from the Cactus Bay area, slightly cooler than the Eastern Vineyards and a little more fertile. A large component of this blend comes from our oldest Syrah vineyard, North 3 which is co-fermented with 10% Viognier added as whole clusters to the ferment. The remaining batches were de-stemmed into vat with varying amounts of whole cluster retained and all underwent a wild fermentation, were pressed to barrel separately and went through a wild malolactic secondary fermentation. Blended and bottled in June 2020.

Tasting Notes

The 2019 Estate Syrah opens up to be incredibly lifted with tons of sweet blueberry fruit and black pepper with lovely hints of apricot from the Viognier. The fruit was picked relatively early providing a real crispness on the palate but with plenty of fruit intensity and weight finishing with a nice grip of tannin. The 2019 Estate Syrah will easily over deliver in quality and is better than Pinot, way way better than Pinot….