D'Arenberg Dead Arm Shiraz 2006
The Dead Arm gets its name in a fairly inauspicious way – it is named after the disease (Eutypa Lata) which afflicts some of the oldest vines at d’Arenberg from which we get the majority of fruit destined for The Dead Arm. The disease, Eutypa Lata, or ‘Dead Arm’ is common all around the world in old vineyard sites.
The disease in effect slowly reduces one of the ‘arms’ of the vines to dead wood, which then means the other arm of the vine produces small volumes of the most incredibly concentrated and highly flavoured grapes.
The still fermenting grapes are pressed off in baskets through the old ‘Coq’ and ‘Bromley & Tregoning’ presses into mainly new American and French oak barriques for 22 months or thereabouts, before blending and bottling at d’Arenberg.
