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  • Country ranking ?

    152
  • Producer ranking ?

    7
  • Decanting time

    4h
  • When to drink

    now to 2030
  • Food Pairing

    Roast lamb served medium-rare

The Tb points given to this wine are the world’s most valid and most up-to-date evaluation of the quality of the wine. Tastingbook points are formed by the Tastingbook algorithm which takes into account the wine ratings of the world's best-known professional wine critics, wine ratings by thousands of tastingbook’s professionals and users, the generally recognised vintage quality and reputation of the vineyard and winery. Wine needs at least five professional ratings to get the Tb score. Tastingbook.com is the world's largest wine information service which is an unbiased, non-commercial and free for everyone.

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Cellaring Potential 

While enjoyable in youth, this wine will reach its full potential with bottle age up to at least 20 years. The considerable structure and depth will ensure that the fruit characters will develop over time revealing more complexity and providing immense interest. This wine is best stored in an environment free of direct sunlight and with consistent temperatures between 10°C and 15°C.

Harvest dates 

3 Feb - 16 April 

Alcohol 

14.5% 

Residual sugar 

2.9 g/l 

Titratable acid 

6.9 

pH 

3.31 

Oak maturation 

18 months 

Chief Winemaker 

Chester Osborn 

Senior Winemaker 

Jack Walton 

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The Story

The Story Behind The Name / Dead Arm is a vine disease caused by the fungus Eutypa Lata that randomly affects vineyards all over the world. Often vines affected are severely pruned or replanted. One half, or an ‘arm’ of the vine slowly becomes reduced to dead wood. That side may be lifeless and brittle, but the grapes on the other side, while low yielding, display amazing intensity.

The Characteristics

A classic Dead Arm in every sense of the word. The nose is brooding and alluring, earthy notes combined with dark fruits, fennel and baking spice. The longer this wine sits in the glass, the further it unfurls opening into notes of sweeter berry fruit laced with more of those soily, forest floor notes.


The palate is dense and concentrated with a plethora of fruit characters, plum, blackberry, mulberry, earth, iodine and black olive. Despite the richness and intensity of the attack and mid palate the experience surprisingly crescendos with a lick of spicy pepper, coupled with lovely, fined grained, textural tannins that seem to persist in the mouth forever. Complex, savoury and moreish!

100% McLaren Vale Shiraz

 

 

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Latest Pro-tasting notes

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Written Notes

One of Australia’s iconic Shiraz, this McLaren Vale cracker is youthful, dense, inky and powerful. Chocolate, black fruits, licorice and olives. Boundless, very fine tannins. Heaps of potential and excellent length. At the moment, it is simply too young. With time, it should be enormous and will undoubtedly deserve higher points.

Score: 94/100

Best drinking: from five for the following fifteen years.

Alc: 14.4%

  • 94p

Brilliant ruby. Smoke- and spice-accented dark berries, olive and licorice on the pungent nose. Subtly sweet blackberry and cherry flavors show excellent clarity and energy and pick up a sexy floral quality with aeration. Displays excellent delineation, a gracefully light touch and powerful mineral lift on the persistent, gently tannic finish, which features lingering notes of bitter cherry pit and candied violet.

  • 94p

'Arenberg's 2013 icon releases have been a stunning return to form. Whilst previous releases (see: Ironstone Pressings, Coppermine Road, Dead Arm) have been good, they - for me - have not quite nudged the Very Good/ Excellent realms. I've oft wondered - and as excellent as the initiative is - what impact Scarce Earth bottlings may have had on these icon releases.


This is good, very good. Ironstone, earth; sanguine, plum, blackcurrant, herb inflected, ferrous - almost wild. The tannin structure - impressive, dominating from the middle third. Oak is present, carrying licorice to its conclusion. Just give it time. 94 

  • 94p
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Information

Origin

McLaren Vale, South Australia

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Inside Information

Dark fruit and savoury characters leap from the glass, in particular there is liquorice and blackberry, laced with a hint of char. Complexity in the shape of iodine and soil like notes follow. Each whiff brings out something new. 

The wine is powerful and structured. There is a plethora of sweet fruit character, plums and mulberries, but not a hint of fatness. Rather the wine is quite compact and focused. Again layer upon layer of exotic characters, earth and crushed ants among others, only add to the intrigue of this wine. A powerful yet refined expression of Shiraz with balance, complexity and persistence….. and unmistakeably d’Arenberg. 

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