2020 Bentley Ironworks Cabernet Sauvignon
2020 Bentley Ironworks is a captivating wine, where fully ripe flavors meet moderate alcohol and finish with a dry tannic burst. This wine is medium to full bodied, smooth and elegant on the finish, tied together with glorious oak accents of smoke, cedar, tobacco, and coffee. The harvested berries were super tiny giving way to a wine of immense complexity, dark color and prominent tannins. Thick and substantial on the palate, this slight blend of 92% Cabernet Sauvignon and 8 % Petite Sirah saw plenty of time in barrels, of which 65% were the very best brand-new cooperage. I love the upfront aromas of cranberry, red currant and dark cherry centered around a lingering taste of black olive, herbs and dill and well-integrated core with pepper and sage. Bentley Ironworks Cabernet Sauvignon is our most popular Cabernet wine, and this one will confidently stand the test of time, needing only good cellar age to reach its full potential.
2020 Bentley Ironworks is a captivating wine, where fully ripe flavors meet moderate alcohol and finish with a dry tannic burst. This wine is medium to full bodied, smooth and elegant on the finish, tied together with glorious oak accents of smoke, cedar, tobacco, and coffee. The harvested berries were super tiny giving way to a wine of immense complexity, dark color and prominent tannins. Thick and substantial on the palate, this slight blend of 92% Cabernet Sauvignon and 8 % Petite Sirah saw plenty of time in barrels, of which 65% were the very best brand-new cooperage. I love the upfront aromas of cranberry, red currant and dark cherry centered around a lingering taste of black olive, herbs and dill and well-integrated core with pepper and sage. Bentley Ironworks Cabernet Sauvignon is our most popular Cabernet wine, and this one will confidently stand the test of time, needing only good cellar age to reach its full potential.
Our winemaking philosophy is centered around minimal, low intervention operations, allowing the grapes to be the most expressive as possible. Therefore, the fruit was handled with utmost care during destemming, fermentation, pressing, racking and eventual barrel aging. Again, I cannot stress enough how clean and uniform these Bentley Cabernet Sauvignon berries where when delivered to the winery! Fermentation was completed in both a stainless-steel tank and new 500L French Oak Puncheon barrels. The barrels fermentation smelled fantastic with notes of grilled pork mixed with chocolate cherry and spice notes. We selected two premium yeast strains for fermentation; Yeast BDX for the barrels and yeast STRUCTURE for the tank fermentation. The two lots were combined once the two lots had achieved full fermentation. Pressing was set at low PSI to ensure soft extraction of the wine from the skins. The young wine settled in a stainless tank for 3 days before a clean rack down into barrels for gaining. Barrels were tasted and topped every six weeks before bottling in May of 2022.
| Download Wine Notes |
| Vintage | 2020 |
| Varietal | Cabernet Sauvignon |
| Varietal Composition | 92% Cabernet Sauvignon, 8% Petite Sirah |
| Appellation | Paso Robles |
| Vineyard | Frankel Family Estate |
| Acid | 0.65 g/100 ml |
| PH | 3.60 |
| Residual Sugar | 0.02 g/100 ml |
| Alcohol | 14.30% |
| Volume | 750 ml |
| Bottling Date | 05/19/2022 |
| Cases Produced | 645 |
I am abundantly pleased with this tremendous wine; it’s truly one-of-a-kind in aroma, bouquet, texture and finish. The bottle label honors master blacksmith Robert Bentley, who’s work shop is only a stone’s throw away from the vineyard. The wine is classic in nature, rich, dense in structure and layered with exceptional dark red fruit tones scattered on the wine’s opaque palate. Bentley Ironworks fruit is like none other on the 265-acre ranch at Frankel Vineyards. We started isolating this grape harvest in 2008 and ever since then it has quickly become our most sought after Cabernet Sauvignon wine. The vineyard is located on the cool valley floor and is surrounded by a seasonal river bed, called “cripple creek.” The vines are now fully mature and produce a consistent moderate load of around 3 tons per acre each year. We cane-prune and head-train the vines, leaving behind spur positioned and six canes. Consequently, the grapes are super uniform and packed with heightened aromas and phenolic. 2020 was a challenging growing season for a myriad of reason, but all-in-all the grapes handled everything in stride. The fruit reached maturity earlier than average, and we harvested on the night of October 8th 2020.
