d'Arenberg d'Arrys Original Shiraz/Grenache 1998

After a few years in bottle dArrys Original starts to show some extraordinary tertiary characters, without losing much of its young medium to full bodied intensity. The colour becomes more brick red, then cedar like and finally tawny brown. The bouquet develops a whole range of subtle and not so subtle nuances.

Coffee, mocha, chocolate and leather emerge as dominant older fruit aromas flavours alongside gamey, earthy, cedar like and minty smells. The classic hallmark of peppery-spicy character develops and the velvety texture remains. Occasionally, dried sour cherry aromas and ever so slightly bitter blackberry tannin on the palate develop increasing the wines food applicability. Well cellared, dArrys Original becomes, soft, generous, full flavoured, velvety long and seamless in bottle, with no particular component standing out, as more than four decades of previous vintages have shown.