2014 d’Arenberg The Dead Arm Shiraz

The Dead Arm Shiraz is one of the most iconic wines of McLaren Vale, fermented in 5 tonne open fermenters with header boards that submerge the grape skins, ensuring tannin and colour extraction. The wine finishes fermentation in barrel, is aged on it’s own lees and bottled without fining or filtration.

This is a wine that you should open and decant for at least a few hours if drinking in the next two to three years with air helping to unravel layers of complexity. On the nose there is a concentration of plum that gives way to star anise and cured meat, oak is there but very much secondary.

Taut black fruits and redcurrant are the first impression on the palate, with bay leaf, coffee grinds and gentle oak spice that gain a touch of blue fruit on the mid palate before a web of drying tannin put it back in it’s place.

The finish is all class, lightly spiced plum and dark cherry are wrapped in woodsmoke and earth. The length is significant.