D'Arenberg The Dead Arm Shiraz

Black Dead Arm, also known as dead arm disease, is a disorder that affects grapevines. Caused by the Eutypa Lata fungus, this disorder causes half of the vine, or an arm of it, to turn into dead wood. However, rather than dying, the vine thrives and while one side remains totally inactive, the other continues producing low yields but of great intensity and quality. These berries are used to make D'Arenberg The Dead Arm Shiraz, a red wine produced by the D'Arenberg winery in South Australia, specifically in the McLaren Vale, one of the country’s most prosperous wine-growing areas.

The origins of this winery can be traced back to 1912 when Joseph Osborn, who had been working with the wine merchant Thomas Hardy since 1881, decided to plant 3 hectares of Syrah. Today the fourth generation of the family continues to run the winery, which is considered a benchmark in the area.

At D'Arenberg, harvests are carried out in small batches. Prior to this, Chestern Osborn (chief winemaker) selects the grapes in the vineyard and classifies each plot, setting a different harvest date for each one of them. The vines grow on a wide variety of soils. In particular, McLaren Vale is one of the most geologically diverse regions in the world, where vineyards grow on marl, sand, clay and lime. In addition, most of the region’s vineyards are planted on the coastal strip, very close to the Indian Ocean, which guarantees coolness and humidity in an area where rainfall is increasingly absent. Obviously the Mediterranean climate (warm summers and mild winters) is influenced by these breezes, which translates into very low risk of frost.

In the winery, the small batches of D'Arenberg The Dead Arm Shiraz are gently crushed and vatted in five-ton open tanks. The harvested grapes begin to ferment. The wine is then basket pressed and transferred to new and used French oak barrels, where it will complete fermentation. D'Arenberg The Dead Arm Shiraz ages in these barrels on its lees, without being touched or racked. Finally, all the batches are blended and bottled without clarification or filtration.