From the winemaker…
Our Dreadnought Syrah comes from steep hillside vineyards and is carefully hand harvested before delivery to the winery. The fruit is put across a sorting table before being de stemmed and delivered to open vats for fermentation and in select cases whole clusters were included in the ferment.
Syrah is allowed to ferment with wild yeasts with plunging or pump overs being carried out twice daily. Following an extended time on skins (average 35days in vat) the wines are gently pressed and taken straight to barrel for natural malolactic fermentation in the spring. The wines are racked once to a blend after 18 months before further maturing in tank for 3 months prior to bottling.
The first in a line of early 20th century battleships bestowed with the motto “fear god and dreadnought” and embodying a supreme combination of speed and power, Dreadnought denotes our steepest and most breathtaking hillside Syrah vineyards.
Richard Hemming MW For me, great Syrah generally has several distinct qualities: powerful black fruit that is ripe but not jammy (the latter being more characteristic of Shiraz – an important distinction); fragrant black-pepper spiciness; plus meaty, leathery, smoky complexity that develops with maturity. There are many variations on these core themes (including herbal flavours from fermentation on stems, and varying degrees of oak influence) but when they are combined, Syrah is unique among grapes – and Dreadnought Syrah from Man O’ War captures these characteristics with beautiful fidelity.
Why we like it…
I have many childhood memories of sundrenched days on Waiheke Island. This Syrah is a wonderful example of Auckland wine.
