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| Drinking Windows and Values |
| Community Tasting History |
| Community Tasting Notes (average 89 pts. and median of 90 pts. in 24 notes) - hiding notes with no text | | | Tasted by johnhz on 3/30/2024: Took a while to open but very good. Smooth and velvety (233 views) | | | Tasted by mowtod on 11/21/2023 & rated 90 points: Good match with sausage meal. GOOD FRUIT AND STRUCTURE (541 views) | | | Tasted by Romz on 9/30/2023 & rated 90 points: My 2 bottles that I quickly popped & decanted right before dinner.
Plum, cherry, hint of mint and chocolate oak. Very Aussie Shiraz nose but very elegant palate with chalk minerality. Good density with long saline driven finish.
30092023 - celebrating Mika’s Bday at Supertanker (503 views) | | | Tasted by mowtod on 10/24/2022 & rated 87 points: Classic Shiraz good with beef stew with Christine and Chad (1379 views) | | | Tasted by Sanlucar on 8/21/2022 & rated 78 points: This was the most disappointing Dead Arm Shiraz I've ever had, and I've been drinking this stuff for over 20 years! This was overwhelmingly bad!!!
Acidic, under-ripe, and lack everything and in everyway. This was just awful!
It should be a crime to produce such swill and charge over $75 a bottle for garbage! (1405 views) | | | Tasted by rpagez on 6/2/2022 & rated 90 points: Beautiful, it’s at the start of its drinking age.. Possibly a few years to wait! (1465 views) | | | Tasted by Al-r on 6/12/2021 & rated 88 points: I wrote here about 2012 vintage. I had "dead arm" of 2006 vintage and it was the best concentrated wine I have ever had. This vintage is the most disappinting wine of this year for me - just water comparing with 2006. I will never buy this wine again. (3833 views) | | | Tasted by Tige on 9/25/2020 & rated 88 points: Bu sur plusieurs jours avec de nombreuses heures en carafe. Sur la "chauffe" puis tanins et acidité assez présents.
Pas mauvais mais à presque la moitié du prix je préfère le Laughing Magpie. (4906 views) | | | Tasted by vfccpa123 on 9/12/2020 & rated 93 points: I have always liked Dead Arm. I found this bottle absolutely delicious over the 2 days I drank it. Deep plum and dark fruit aromas and flavor. I found notes of licorice as well. The tannins are probably too strong for many right now; they did soften some on day 2, but for me that is one character of wines I really enjoy. This bottle had that going for it from my viewpoint. It is clearly a powerful wine and I am sure as it softens over some years in the cellar more people will find it approachable and enjoyable. I don't know if it will rate as high as the professionals have reviewed it, but it is good enough for me. (3844 views) | | | Tasted by vfccpa123 on 5/15/2020 & rated 90 points: Very deep purple color with nice fruit in the aroma. Also picked up spices and pepper. Very good on the palette, tannins are stronger than the other aspects of the wine but not so much so that you cannot enjoy the fruit, spice and the touch of leather picked up in the flavors. I personally tend to like the wines where the tannins leave your mouth dry and puckered so this wine did it well for me. (4477 views) | | | Tasted by marcellonegro on 12/31/2019 & rated 90 points: Full of dark berries and black fruit. Lushous flavours and long moderate tannins. (3537 views) | | | Tasted by Justinagogo on 5/23/2019: 红果黑果，矿物，meaty，单宁抓口，高酒精，中+酸度，中+酒体，传统方法“开放式大发酵罐+篮式压榨+新酒法桶和旧美桶发酵”；澳洲旗帜酒，有点喝不懂，酒庄的每个单一子产区都有酒款。 (3538 views) | | | Tasted by WineCenturyAZ on 1/26/2019: Deep ruby with a purple core, nose has medium intensity and is youthful, black fruits, cedar and earth, palate is dry and pronounced, black berry, black raspberry, black currant, cedar, chocolate, spice note, full bodied, long finish, tannins are huge and suck the moisture form your mouth, high alcohol, high acidity, very good quality, drink well now.
WSET 3 tasting (3935 views) | | | Tasted by WineBurrowingWombat on 1/20/2019 & rated 88 points: Nose: Bright and dark red fruits, a pleasant sweet cream, slight oak and some dry earth.
Palate: Same red fruits, good amount of fruit, slightly juicy, some oak and a slight spice.
Deep, dark garnet with a hint of purple. Dry with coarse tannins. Medium body with medium-minus acidity. Decent finish of about 4-5 seconds. The nose is a real treat.. the sweet cream was very pleasant. Good amount of fruit on the palate.. slightly sour oak (seems like it's from the acidity). The dark fruits and deep earth is nice. Approachable but still young.. not quite smooth yet. Estimating about 5 years before this shines more. Still good to drink now though. Decent quality to price ratio. You will definitely need to decant this for an hour.. I didn't have much patience but it seemed to have evolved with time in the glass. (5497 views) | | | Tasted by kevinleeht on 8/28/2018 & rated 91 points: Deep purple in colour. On the nose, it is developing with medium (+) intensity of redcurrants, blackberries, preserved plums, spices. The wine is dry, full body, medium (+) acidity, soft medium (+) tannins, high alcohol, medium (+) flavour intensity of juicy red fruits, blackberries, plums, spices. Finish is medium (+). Wine is good, smooth but find it hard to justify $70 price tag. (5234 views) | | | Tasted by chatters on 6/23/2018: Qantas Winter Wine Festival (Town Hall, Sydney): Slightly reductive black berry, cedar, cream…dense, concentrated, massive tannins with wet, fleshy black fruits, Huge amounts of time required here. (5299 views) | | | Tasted by indiscriminate palate on 3/20/2018: d'Arenberg Cellar Door: Very rich fruit on the nose and palate with relatively ripe, non-intrusive tannin. I don't understand some of the admiration and very high praise of this wine. Overall, a very easy drinking, big-but-not-overdone Shiraz, but relatively boring, and nothing justifying a AU$70 price tag. (4890 views) |
| By Sarah Ahmed
Decanter, d'Arenberg The Dead Arm vertical tasting (10/18/2019)
(d'Arenberg, The Dead Arm Shiraz, McLaren Vale, South Australia, Australia, Red) Subscribe to see review text. | By David Lawrason
WineAlign (10/23/2018)
(D'arenberg The Dead Arm Shiraz, Mclaren Vale red) Subscribe to see review text. | By Michael Godel
WineAlign (10/19/2018)
(D'arenberg The Dead Arm Shiraz, Mclaren Vale red) Subscribe to see review text. | By Campbell Mattinson
The WINEFRONT (6/18/2018)
(D’Arenberg The Dead Arm Shiraz) Subscribe to see review text. | By James Suckling
JamesSuckling.com (6/7/2018)
(d'Arenberg Shiraz McLaren Vale The Dead Arm, Red, Australia) Subscribe to see review text. | By James Halliday
Halliday Wine Companion (2/16/2018)
(d'Arenberg The Dead Arm McLaren Vale Shiraz) Subscribe to see review text. | By Josh Raynolds
Vinous, South Australia, Victoria and a Bit Beyond (Sep 2022)
(d'Arenberg Shiraz The Dead Arm Red) Subscribe to see review text. |
NOTE: Scores and reviews are the property of Decanter and WineAlign and The WINEFRONT and JamesSuckling.com and Halliday Wine Companion and Vinous. (manage subscription channels) |
| d'Arenberg Producer website | Wine Doctor.com profile
U.S. Importer (Addt'l Info)
Producer Location (Google Maps)
One of the most significant wineries in McLaren Vale founded in 1912. The winemaking processes of the past have been maintained, capturing the unique small-batch character of the wines and the true flavour of the McLaren Vale region. All grapes, red and white, are basket-pressed. The reds are still traditionally fermented with the grape skins (caps) submerged in open wax-lined concrete fermenters utilising the age-old technique of foot-treading.
Winemaking duties are carried out by fourth-generation Chester d’Arenberg Osborn. In June 2004 Chester’s father, d’Arry was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia in the Queen’s Birthday Honours for his contributions to the wine industry and to the McLaren Vale region. After more than 65 consecutive vintages d’Arry is very proud of his achievements in creating an internationally recognised wine brand commonly known as the ‘Red Stripe’ due to the distinctive diagonal red stripe that adorns the label. d’Arenberg’s art of being different extends to a range of fortified and dessert wines, which have legendary status worldwide.Shiraz Varietal article (Wikipedia) | Varietal character (Appellation America)The Dead ArmThe 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 Winemaking
Each batch of fruit received is gently crushed in our Demoisy open-mouthed, rubber-toothed crusher so as many of the berries as possible remain whole. After crushing, the must is transferred to open fermenters where the seeds and skins are permanently submerged beneath the free run juice.
The must receives no plunging or pumping over while fermentation occurs. Once the primary fermentation is nearly complete, traditional foot-treading takes place prior to basket-pressing. The wine is then transferred to barrel to complete its primary and secondary fermentation.
After 20 months every barrel is individually assessed for quality.
Only the best barrels are selected to be bottled as The Dead Arm Shiraz.Australia Wine Australia (Australian Wine and Brandy Corporation) | Australian Wines (Wikipedia)South Australia South Australian Wine Industry Association | South Australian Wines (Wikipedia)Fleurieu Fleurieu Wineries & Cellar Doors (southaustralia.com)McLaren Vale McLaren Vale (McLaren Vale Grape, Wine and Tourism)
(Hastwell & Lightfoot webpage) |
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