d’Arenberg Dead Arm Shiraz

Description

d’Arenberg Dead Arm Shiraz is d’Arenberg’s flagship red wine, their top Shiraz and an Australian icon wine. Born from struggle and crafted for pure intensity, the Dead Arm Shiraz is McLaren Vale winemaking at its absolute finest. Taking its name from the gnarled vines affected by Eutypa lata, this premium Australian Shiraz delivers extraordinary power in every drop. Expect a dense, full-bodied palate brimming with ripe blackberries, cracked pepper, dark chocolate and structured oak. It is one of three “Icon” wines produced, alongside the Coppermine Road Cabernet Sauvignon and Ironstone Pressings GSM.

d’Arenberg Dead Arm Shiraz Winemaking

Minimal intervention is the keyword in the winery, where the individual vineyard site’s character is allowed to shine through. Classic vinification methods are used, such as open-top vat fermentation, foot treading and basket pressing. The grapes for the d’Arenberg Dead Arm Shiraz come from some of the estate’s oldest vineyards.

• Small batches of Shiraz grapes are gently crushed and vinified separately until the final blending
• The grapes are foot-trodden two-thirds of the way through fermentation
• The wine is then finally basket pressed, which is gentle on the skins
• Transferred to a mixture of new and used French and old American oak barriques to complete fermentation
• Aged on lees for 18 months
• No racking until final blending. No fining or filtration.
• d’Arenberg Dead Arm Shiraz is suitable for vegans and vegetarians

Why Is It Called Dead Arm Shiraz?

“Dead Arm” refers to a vine disease caused by the fungus Eutypa lata, which affects grapevines across the globe. The disease slowly attacks the vine, eventually killing off one side, or “arm”, of the vine and reducing it to dead wood.

While this is not great news for the winegrower, it does have a silver lining: the remaining living arm carries on, but with drastically reduced yields. What few grapes do grow receive the vine’s full, undivided energy, resulting in fruits of extraordinary power, depth, and flavour concentration. d’Arenberg named their flagship McLaren Vale Shiraz after this phenomenon to celebrate the intense, muscular, and characterful fruit harvested from these resilient old vines.

D’Arenberg: An Australian Icon

D’Arenberg Wines is one of the most iconic of Australian wineries and certainly one of the most famous in the McLaren Vale wine-growing region. The company was founded by Cornish-born Joseph Osborn. Osborn’s parents emigrated to Australia in the 1850s, and Joseph went on to become a well-known Australian Rules footballer, co-founding Norwood Football Club along the way. d’Arenberg is a member of Australia’s First Families of Wine.

Eventually, he would become a partner in Thomas Hardy Limited, a local politician and become involved in horse racing before buying what would become the d’Arenberg estate in 1912. Today, the estate is in the hands of the fourth-generation winemaker Chester Osborne. The company is known for their iconic red-striped label and quirky wine names such as Dead Arm, Laughing Magpie and Stump Jump.

d’Arenberg’s Diverse Varietals in McLaren Vale

The estate is famous for its top-quality, premium red wines made from classic Australian grape varieties like Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon and Grenache; however, they also have some more unusual plantings of Mediterranean and Rhône varieties, including Tempranillo, Sangiovese, Vermentino, Marsanne, Roussanne and Viognier. The McLaren Vale, located some 45 minutes south of Adelaide, is perfect for grape growing with a Mediterranean climate, huge diversity of soil types and proximity to the ocean with the resultant cooling sea breezes.  All d’Arenberg estate-owned and leased vineyards are NASAA Certified for organic and biodynamic processes.