The Dead Arm 2003 Shiraz

d' Arenberg The Dead Arm McLaren Vale 2003 Shiraz

This is a wine that is a bit strong for my palate, but is perfect for my husband. He absolutely loves this wine. It is very dark purple and opaque, giving it a thickness and full-bodies taste. It has a very intense spice and has more than just a nuance of blackberries, oak and earth. We drank it just 2 years into it's cellaring, but it's prime would be about 2013, so we bought another bottle and we plan on, at least trying to, hold onto it for a while.
The name may sound a bit scary, but the story behind it is very interesting. The "Dead Arm" is a vine disease caused by a fungus. The vine becomes dead on one side, but yields nice little grapes, that are full of flavor on the other. The grapes are hand-harvested and go through their own special little pressing and fermenting process.
This wine comes in your typical sized approx. 750 ml bottle, that runs about $65.00 retail. Fortunately for those with a tighter budget, it comes in the "half" bottles, of 375ml,for about $30.00. My personal suggestion for this wine is for it to be shared sparingly among a group of friends and some chocolate cake.

COST: $30-65
ORIGIN: Fleurieu Peninsula, South Australia