D'Arenberg The Dead Arm Shiraz 2017

Cellar for up to 15 years. No need to decant before serving.

Established in 1912, d’Arenberg is one of the McLaren Vale’s most iconic wineries which boasts some extremely old Shiraz vines planted back in the 1880s. The estate’s chief winemaker is Chester Osborn, the great-grandson of d’Arenberg’s original founder Joseph Rowe Osborn who was actually a teetotaler who used to sell his grapes on to local wineries. Today the estate specialises in making complex and robust reds primarily from Shiraz and Cabernet Sauvignon.

The Dead Arm is d’Arenberg’s flagship Shiraz and takes its name from a vine disease that kills off one “arm” of the plant while the other side of the vine produces remarkably intense and delicious fruit. The grapes for this bottling come from low yielding old vines on the estate which are harvested in small parcels and vinified plot by plot to give maximum control over the blending.

In the winery the grapes are gently crushed and then trodden by foot part way through the fermentation process. The wine is then moved into new and used oak barrels for a lengthy period of ageing and bottled without fining or filtration. This creates a powerful, ageworthy wine with firm tannins and a well-developed structure that will respond well another decade or so in the cellar. Pair with hearty red meat dishes if you’d prefer to enjoy it now.