D'Arenberg The Dead Arm McLaren Vale Shiraz 2002
Interesting name dating back almost a hundred years to the results of a phenomenon of affliction that took half of the growth of the vines, hence a dead arm. Most producers churned them under and replanted but d'Arenberg descendants kept this vineyard whose now aged vines produced rich, complex, extracted fruits from the remaining one-sided vines.
One of our longstanding favorites going back to our discovery of the 1994 vintage. Always a big fruit forward complex wine, this was much more expressive than as documented in my earlier 2004 and 2009 tasting journal posts. Its bigger and still boasts a forwardness but what was an off-tone of minerality now is more natural ripe raisin-fig with a layer of cedar predominating over complex black and blue berry fruits with tones of pepper, spice, and cassis and hint of vanilla with a big long bold finish that has a slight tone of tangy cherry. Linda likes this ripe boldness but its a bit too much to my liking. We tasted with fruits and artisan cheeses - it needs a bigger accompaniment like beef steak or even perhaps bar-b-que ribs!
RM 89 points.
https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=27221
Interesting name dating back almost a hundred years to the results of a phenomenon of affliction that took half of the growth of the vines, hence a dead arm. Most producers churned them under and replanted but d'Arenberg descendants kept this vineyard whose now aged vines produced rich, complex, extracted fruits from the remaining one-sided vines.
One of our longstanding favorites going back to our discovery of the 1994 vintage. Always a big fruit forward complex wine, this was much more expressive than as documented in my earlier 2004 and 2009 tasting journal posts. Its bigger and still boasts a forwardness but what was an off-tone of minerality now is more natural ripe raisin-fig with a layer of cedar predominating over complex black and blue berry fruits with tones of pepper, spice, and cassis and hint of vanilla with a big long bold finish that has a slight tone of tangy cherry. Linda likes this ripe boldness but its a bit too much to my liking. We tasted with fruits and artisan cheeses - it needs a bigger accompaniment like beef steak or even perhaps bar-b-que ribs!
RM 89 points.
https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=27221