TN: 1999 d'Arenberg Shiraz The Dead Arm

  • 1999 d’Arenberg Shiraz The Dead Arm - Australia, South Australia, Fleurieu, McLaren Vale (1/8/2021)
    That American oak. There is something becoming of American oak and OZ fruit with 20+ years of age. Don’t get me wrong, this is still incredibly fresh, big, and ripe. Not my preferred style, but I still have to tip my hat. OTOH, I could also say it took 20 years for this to become enjoyable.

Nose of big brooding fruit, herbs, chocolate, coconut and banana. Very new world. Layered palate, smooth and finally balanced. Very nice with 20+ years to go. (92 pts.)

Posted from CellarTracker

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2 for 2. Dead Arm is my favorite Aussie Shiraz. Although I have never found it overripe or overbearing it always has a good stripe of acidity to keep it fresh.

Oldest I’ve had is 1995, even the Parker favorite 2001 was a gem in a world of ooze monsters.

Yeah I had the 2001 a couple of years ago and it was holding up great

Kind of a “soft” plummy wine, very far from northern Rhone style, but quite good for what it is

Personally I think all these drank bast at release/young, and didn’t develop well.

Don’t think I have any OZ in the cellar anywhere

Jordon, thank you for the note. I still have one in the cellar. Good to hear there is no rush. [cheers.gif]

Never tasted the 99 but sounds like an Aussie I would enjoy. Started drinking them around 01 vintage. I have not tasted anything over 2008. Anyone have any recs?

In our tasting of older Aussie reds, The Dead Arm 1998 was the WotN - and we even had Grange 1990 there as well.

Although this was basically because Grange felt all too young - it really was ridiculously backward for its age. The Dead Arm was remarkably youthful for its age as well, but showing at least some development and impressive complexity in addition to its surprising freshness and sense of structure. Virtually all the other wines we had there were more evolved, softer and lower in acidity with very little action in the tannin department.

In our tasting of older Aussie reds, The Dead Arm 1998 was the WotN - and we even had Grange 1990 there as well.

Although this was basically because Grange felt all too young - it really was ridiculously backward for its age. The Dead Arm was remarkably youthful for its age as well, but showing at least some development and impressive complexity in addition to its surprising freshness and sense of structure. Virtually all the other wines we had there were more evolved, softer and lower in acidity with very little action in the tannin department.

Sounds like I need to seek it out. One of my favorite 98s was the Fox Creek Reserve Shiraz!

We actually had two Fox Creek wines in that same tasting, one of which was 1998 JSM (the other one was 1999 JSM).

Although the wines were relatively youthful for their age (although not as backward as Grange or The Dead Arm) with relatively good acid structures, they were also very soft in tannins and the taste was really not up my alley - quite noticeably ripe and sweetly-fruited with rather prominent oak - even after 20 years of aging!

Is that because you think all Oz wine is from hot climates or that you don’t have access to or just haven’t tried their cool climate wines?

In the limited sampling I have had of OZ wines, I have not liked the ways they develop. True this is generally all Parker / Grateful Palate kind of selections back when they were the rage, so perhaps there are ones I would like, but its also a function of relative value. I can generally find good value in France and Spain pretty easily. If I’m looking at OZ wines it’s usually something like ‘this tastes like a Cote Rotie for 2/3 the price or something’ and if that statement is no longer true because of the strong AUD, I’ll just go for the real thing.

Are you referring to Dead Arm specifically, or Australian shiraz (or just wine) generally?

Dead Arm ages quite well. I’ve had several bottles of the 2002 in the last few years and they’re into probably an early part of their peak window, or may still improve more.

I agree that many of the super high octane shiraz from the boom period of the early 2000s have not aged well. But Dead Arm is not really that kind of wine.

I’ve had Dead Arm, Ironstone Pressings, and whatever that third one they had up to maybe 10-15 years age. For my tastes I liked them much more on release.

When I was younger I used to work by a wine bar that would sell them for $60 a bottle, your pick, and they were crowdpleasers for biz meetings.

(the older ones were cellared myself)

Drank some of my 95, 96, 97, 98 and 99 Dead Arm recently… All of which were drinking well

We had a 2001 Dead Arm this summer that was drinking very well. My notes: Pretty ripe black fruits, eucalyptus and a touch of mint. Medium plus bodied with a good amount of tannin with some nice spice on the finish. In a good place. 92 points.
We have 3 of these left - the last of our late 1990’s to early 2000’s Aussies.

Rimmerman is flogging this today - 2017 Dead Arm for $37.

That’s less than what I remember paying back in the 90s.

Sounds like the market for these has collapsed.

Wholesale on these hasn’t really changed in 20 years. Only retail pricing has returned to normal margins, not sure why you’d think market has collapsed.

Well I’m just looking at it from the end customer perspective. If these were $39 back in the 90’s and they’re $37 today, flat over a generation is a soft market the way I see things.

I do respect that for true lovers of their wine, this is a feature not a bug.

(I feel that way about the wonderful cheapness of Sauternes!)

Kind of an anomaly to see wines discussed on this site hold their price…not everything has to be Allemand or all we would have is threads lamenting what the price was vs. what the price is today.

I know. It’s kind of crazy. Good on d’Arenberg and their partners at least.