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.