Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Decanter
A very dry but mild growing season with many cool nights has produced a lifted Shiraz of good intensity and detail. Bright blackberry fruit is riven with red licorice and fennel seed spice plus dried rose top notes. Plentiful but fine minerally, earthy tannins lend structure and length. For now, wearing its alcohol very well – highly promising.
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James Suckling
This is a very composed and nicely layered rendition of this top-end shiraz with aromas of cocoa, dark plums, blackberries, cinnamon, licorice and dark cherries. The palate has a very impressive build of ripe dark-fruit and chocolate flavors. Layered and expansive, it swells impressively through the finish. Smoothly resolved and gently spicy. Drink or hold.
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Wine & Spirits
Chester Osborn’s collection of old-vine shiraz parcels includes a lot of plants that have lost a limb to Eutypa, a vine disease; they now concentrate their efforts on the fruit growing on the remaining arms. This 2017 shows that concentration in a wine that radiates sun from its blue-black fruit contrasted with earthiness in its rooty, radish-like tannins.
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: The 2017 d'Arenberg Dead Arm Shiraz deftly combines elements from both the Old and New Worlds. TASTING NOTES: This wine is generous in black fruit, savory spices, leather, and oak. Enjoy it with slow-braised meat dishes. (Tasted: September 24, 2020, San Francisco, CA)
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Locked up tight and ungiving on the nose, d'Arenberg's 2017 The Dead Arm Shiraz is nonetheless formidably dense and concentrated on the palate. Notes of charred wood join plums, raspberries and black olives in this full-bodied effort. With its current surly disposition, it appears to require decanting or several years' sleep in a cool cellar. Giving it air helped bring out purple raspberries and softened the considerable tannins, so I'm optimistic about its future evolution. Rating: 92+
Marked by an unmistakable deep purple hue and savory aromatics, Syrah makes an intense, powerful and often age-worthy red. Native to the Northern Rhône, Syrah achieves its maximum potential in the steep village of Hermitage and plays an important component in the Red Rhône Blends of the south, adding color and structure to Grenache and Mourvèdre. Syrah is the most widely planted grape of Australia and is important in California and Washington. Sommelier Secret—Such a synergy these three create together, the Grenache, Syrah, Mourvedre trio often takes on the shorthand term, “GSM.”
Known for opulent red wines with intense power and concentration, McLaren Vale is home to perhaps the most “classic” style of Australian Shiraz. Vinified on its own or in Rhône Blends, these hot-climate wines are deeply colored and high in extract with signature hints of dark chocolate and licorice. Cabernet Sauvignon is also produced in a similar style.
Whites, often made from Chardonnay or Sauvignon Blanc tend to be opulent and full of tropical, stone and citrus fruit.