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.
Wine Description
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
Wine Information
The Vintage
Vintage 2005 could be summarised as a vintage that ripened without interruptions. It was early, it was late. After a slightly dry winter, spring rains in November sent vines booming and set up a quick condensed flowering and set with good berry numbers. Summer was cool with intermitted rains throughout December and January on a fortnightly basis which made for a mild but steady lead up to harvest without interrupting veraison. Vigour was nominal due to only moderate reserves of soil moisture from a relatively dry winter which restricted shoot length. With the onset of autumn we experienced a burst of warm to hot, dry weather with above average day and night time temperatures throughout March, April and May which secured an early intake of every variety. The resulting wines are very tight wines, with very good red fruit fragrance and lovely acidity. Crops were above average although slightly under 2004.