Man O War Ironclad Bordeaux Blend 2022

Vintage 2022 was excellent for Bordeaux reds, balanced crops, and a hot and dry season for the region resulted in our second largest harvest of 450 tons across all our vineyard sites. Sourced from 14 different vineyard sites across 5 varieties the Ironclad is a classic Right Bank Bordeaux style blend. All the vineyards are dry grown, and hand harvested from steep valley sites sheltered from the cooling winds of the Pacific Ocean. Each parcel is fermented separately
with wild yeasts in open top fermenters with a total time in vat of
30 days. Pressed and aged separately in 500 litre French Oak puncheons the wines undergo natural malolactic fermentation and rest on gross lees for 18 months. After rigorous tasting and blending trials, the wines are then racked to blend, aged together for a further 6 months.

2022 Ironclad is untamed in the best sense of the word, with dark fruits; plums and berries, wildflowers, crushed rock and iodine creating a complex and lifted aroma profile. The palate shows good density balanced with coastal freshness and finishing with a core of powerful tannins. The power of the vintage has been tempered at blending with a rare dominance of Merlot over Cabernet Franc giving the wine good early accessibility but clearly a wine suited to ageing.

Tasting Profile

Aroma:

Blueberry, Boysenberry, Herbal

Palate:

Blue Fruits, Cassis, Graphite

Food Pairings:

Cheese

Pork

Red Meat