Yangarra Ironheart Shiraz 2022

Accolades:
97/100 – Halliday Wine Companion
97/100 – Huon Hooke, The Real Review
96/100 – Stuart Knox, The Real Review
96/100 – James Suckling
95/100 – Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate

“The 2022 Ironheart Shiraz leads with sumac and soaked raspberries, creamy dark berries, exotic spice and tapenade. The oak makes an impact on the nose: it contributes an oatmeal character, reminiscent of malt biscuits and scraped vanilla bean. Nothing on this earth is getting in the way of or obscuring that saturated fruit concentration, however. Fine, silty tannins like volcanic sand shape the flow of flavor across the palate, and all elements feel eminently black and shadowy. It’s tannic, which reflects the vintage, structural and inky. It’s a powerhouse. It matured in a combination of French and Austrian oak for 19 months—for 12 months, the fruit remains on lees in puncheon (35% new), and the remaining seven months are spent as a blended whole in a two-year-old 25-hectoliter foudre.“ – Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate

“’22 was a cool year that produced some reticent but excellent grenache, while shiraz seemed to sail through untroubled. This is an infant, of course, but there’s a ready appeal not always seen at this stage, a meshing of red, blue and black fruits – ripe raspberry, blackberry, blueberry, tart boysenberry, red plum, black olive – with an overlay of baking spices, iodine, coffee grounds and beef bouillon. And iron, yes. It’s on the label. In the ground. In the wine. Here, the wine benefits from that soil transfer being elegant, filigreed, not rugged. It needs a little time to be its best, but it’s a superb release.” – Marcus Ellis, Halliday Wine Companion

“Deep, bright purple colour leads into a slightly subdued but rich nose of dark and red fruits, blackberry uppermost, with charcoal, mixed spice and sweet floral high-notes. The wine is tremendously deep and concentrated on the palate but at the same time elegant and spritely. There are flecks of dark chocolate and bitumen, too. The wine is long and the tannins supple and fine, resulting in a remarkably more-ish finish—it drinks so well now, yet the wine is destined for a long future.” – Huon Hooke, The Real Review

“Floral and perfumed with an underlying power, showing notes of mulberries, wild blackberries, Damson plums and cured meat. The palate is full-bodied with seamless tannins and bright acidity, giving robust notes of dark cherries, iodine, mocha, violets and ferric earth. Well balanced and structured. Very serious. Drink or hold.” – James Suckling

Tasting Note: Ironheart is the flagship Shiraz from our single vineyard estate in Blewitt Springs at the northern edge of McLaren Vale. The vineyard’s northern aspect, higher elevation and sandy ironstone soils produce Shiraz with immense concentration and finesse.

Winemaking Notes: Hand-picked (24th March), 25% whole bunches, and the remainder destemmed, mechanically berry sorted, and crushed. Open fermenters and on skins for approximately 21 days. A gentle maceration principle of wetting the cap and only draining and returning as required. Wild yeast ferment. No pressings are used in this wine. Matured in French oak for a total of 19 months. Kept on lees for 12 months in French oak puncheons (35% new) and then blended to a 2 year old Austrian and French oak foudre and further matured for 7 months. Bottled November 2023.

Certification: Organic, Biodynamic

Alcohol: 13.5%

Variety: Shiraz

Region: Kangarilla, McLaren Vale, South Australia