TN: d'Arenberg 1998 Dead Arm Shiraz

TORB · Post by **TORB** » Mon Dec 17, 2007 10:36 am

As promised.

An expressive, big bouquet with loads of vanillin and mushroom oak wonderfully offset to ripe, dark fruits. Fine, powdery, drying tannins combine with refreshing acid which lifts the finish and strong, deep, pure fruit to form a full-bodied, solid and firm wine. The palate shows black fruits with blueberry, plum, rich chocolate, hints of coffee and vanilla flavours which finish long and persistent. This clever winemaking at play here and the finish is huge, incredibly long and powerful. Rated as Excellent now, the rating should improve as the wine enters its peak drinking window around 2011.

monghead · Post by **monghead** » Mon Dec 17, 2007 12:11 pm

Thanks for the note Ric.

I must say however, the last time I tasted this wine, I was very disappointed. The palate was lacking conviction, and dropped off quite precipitously. The fruit was initially jammy, then finishing quite sour.

Makes me think I cought a bad bottle. I think based on this, I must try another. Will try one this week.

Cheers,

Mongehad.

Matthew Moate · Post by **Matthew Moate** » Mon Dec 17, 2007 4:07 pm

Interesting as I'll be having the 99 over Xmas this year. My last bottle from some freebies I scored from d'Arenberg a few moons ago now...

Adair · Post by **Adair** » Mon Dec 17, 2007 11:27 pm

Despite a number of negative reviews of this wine, none have convinced me to open any more of my bottles after the last one I opened around 4-5 years ago. My tastings agree with Ric. This wine is simply stunning.

Adair

Anonymous · Post by **Anonymous** » Mon Dec 17, 2007 11:58 pm

I agree - a little more aging on this wine and we'll be laughing. It will soften and settle well I feel, judging on the tasting I had a year ago same vintage, I cannot wait to open my bottle in a few more years.

monghead · Post by **monghead** » Tue Dec 18, 2007 1:06 pm

Well, I've done it.

Opened last night to have with wifey's lovely spag bol.

Colour was an inpenetrable dark purple. Bouquet was impressive, and very encouraging. Dark fruits with a hint of stewed characteristic, vanilla/chocolate oak, a hint of smokiness. So far very good..... The palate was certainly expansive, brooding, powerful. Up-front with rich dark berries, plums, vanilla, and that lovely hint of smokiness. HOWEVER, again, these flavours fell off quite rapidly, though not as precipitously as the last time from memory, to reveal a sour, acidic finish, with grainy tannins.

This certainly did not improve with time, and as the night got on, the initial richness of the fruit declined, and the unsavoury acidic/tannic characteristics were more pronounced. For me, this is a very bad sign, as I usually like a wine more and more as the bottle is emptied (probably has something to do with the alcohol getting to the pickled brain cells :wink:

), but not in this case.

I left a glass behind in a half bottle, and this morning, tried it again. It was terribly oxidised, and I didn't even taste it.

Anyways, reflecting on this, I am wondering what is going on???
It then dawned on me.... Perhaps this was a result of "cooking" a wine some time in it's past??? This was one of the first purchases I made on a tour through SA many years ago, and we bought 3 bottles of this, and transported it by car throughout our 2 week trip, including a drive back to Sydney.

Could the heat involved in this trip have affected the wine? We were very careful to transfer the wine into our accomodation each night, and leave the AC on through the days we were out, but in the transfers between regions and the trip back to Sydney, they essentially sat in the boot.....

Thoughts and comments certainly welcome.

Cheers,

Monghead.

griff · Post by **griff** » Tue Dec 18, 2007 1:19 pm

monghead wrote:Well, I've done it.

Opened last night to have with wifey's lovely spag bol.

Colour was an inpenetrable dark purple. Bouquet was impressive, and very encouraging. Dark fruits with a hint of stewed characteristic, vanilla/chocolate oak, a hint of smokiness. So far very good..... The palate was certainly expansive, brooding, powerful. Up-front with rich dark berries, plums, vanilla, and that lovely hint of smokiness. HOWEVER, again, these flavours fell off quite rapidly, though not as precipitously as the last time from memory, to reveal a sour, acidic finish, with grainy tannins.

This certainly did not improve with time, and as the night got on, the initial richness of the fruit declined, and the unsavoury acidic/tannic characteristics were more pronounced. For me, this is a very bad sign, as I usually like a wine more and more as the bottle is emptied (probably has something to do with the alcohol getting to the pickled brain cells ), but not in this case.

I left a glass behind in a half bottle, and this morning, tried it again. It was terribly oxidised, and I didn't even taste it.

Anyways, reflecting on this, I am wondering what is going on???
It then dawned on me.... Perhaps this was a result of "cooking" a wine some time in it's past??? This was one of the first purchases I made on a tour through SA many years ago, and we bought 3 bottles of this, and transported it by car throughout our 2 week trip, including a drive back to Sydney.

Could the heat involved in this trip have affected the wine? We were very careful to transfer the wine into our accomodation each night, and leave the AC on through the days we were out, but in the transfers between regions and the trip back to Sydney, they essentially sat in the boot.....

Thoughts and comments certainly welcome.

Cheers,

Monghead.

One sign of rapid temp fluctuations would be wine forcing itself between bottle and cork (happened recently to a wine delivery of mine - every single one of them so far :evil:

). Sometimes the wine would even collect between the cork and the capsule in a bad case scenario.

Any signs like these?

cheers

Carl

monghead · Post by **monghead** » Tue Dec 18, 2007 1:37 pm

Carl,

I did look hard for any signs of this, and really, found none in this bottle. The capsule was freely rotatable, the cork slid out without any problems, and there was no stain on the sides of, or on top of the cork to indicate leakage during these temperature variations. Can't remember the first bottle though...

Cheers,

Monghead.

Anonymous · Post by **Anonymous** » Tue Dec 18, 2007 1:45 pm

If the wine has undergone temperature variance that was significant over a number of days, let alone weeks, while being transported, it does heighten the possibility that it may oxidise while still under seal. It's an odd phenomenon but it happens. Most likely yours was shocked by the heat and this messed up the stability of the acid against the sugars (no matter how minute in amount). Just wavering a guess though, as it depends exactly on the difference in its finish more than anything.

griff · Post by **griff** » Tue Dec 18, 2007 2:23 pm

I had a hunt around for other reviews online after what Adair said. Seems that acid is mentioned in almost half of them and a few state that it is too acidic. I wonder if this vintage suffers bottle variation? For what it is worth I have only had the 1998 once at a wine dinner with Chester presiding about 4 years ago now I think. It was great of course. More food for thought.

cheers

Carl

beef · Post by **beef** » Tue Dec 18, 2007 5:00 pm

griff wrote:I had a hunt around for other reviews online after what Adair said. Seems that acid is mentioned in almost half of them and a few state that it is too acidic. I wonder if this vintage suffers bottle variation? For what it is worth I have only had the 1998 once at a wine dinner with Chester presiding about 4 years ago now I think. It was great of course. More food for thought.

cheers

Carl

** Adair is a fan of other high-acid wines, such as the Mike Press range. I like them too.

Stuart

Gary W · Post by **Gary W** » Tue Dec 18, 2007 11:38 pm

tukka_dan wrote: Most likely yours just received bottle shock badly and this messed up the stability of the acid.

Bottle shock is the dumb period that a wine goes through for a few weeks (or months) post bottling. Nothing else.
GW

Anonymous · Post by **Anonymous** » Wed Dec 19, 2007 12:51 am

Bottle shock is the dumb period that a wine goes through for a few weeks (or months) post bottling. Nothing else.

My apologies, that's not the process I was referring to (in my head, at least). I abbreviated my thought process too far. I shall be more careful.
:shock:

To reiterate, certain acids can become unbalanced by heating a wine, sighted with actual physical movement of that wine, in the said bottle [swishing around etc], during heating. The effect is worse seen in wines with significant residual sugars (as the carbohydrate chains gently break apart), however I doubt this wine has much residual, if any, from memory.

Hope that makes more sense!

PS Previous post now edited to be more accurate.. thanks for picking it up.

griff · Post by **griff** » Wed Dec 19, 2007 8:30 am

tukka_dan wrote:
Bottle shock is the dumb period that a wine goes through for a few weeks (or months) post bottling. Nothing else.

My apologies, that's not the process I was referring to (in my head, at least). I abbreviated my thought process too far. I shall be more careful.

To reiterate, certain acids can become unbalanced by heating a wine, sighted with actual physical movement of that wine, in the said bottle [swishing around etc], during heating. The effect is worse seen in wines with significant residual sugars (as the carbohydrate chains gently break apart), however I doubt this wine has much residual, if any, from memory.

Hope that makes more sense!

PS Previous post now edited to be more accurate.. thanks for picking it up.

There is a good book called 'Concepts in Wine Chemistry' by Yair Margalit.
Would be worthwhile reading.

As for acids becoming unbalanced, in what manner do you mean? Are you referring to the the process of madeirization? I don't think this would be the case here.

As for sugars are you referring to pectin? That is the major long-chain sugar in wine. The majority of sugars are monomers and unlikely to break apart.

cheers

Carl

GraemeG · Post by **GraemeG** » Wed Dec 19, 2007 9:23 am

I tasted this wine at various times and was never particularly impressed with it as it aged. A big whack of extra-ripe fruit on the front palate and then nothing much behind except a short warm and hollow finish. My bottles were well enough kept while I had them (bought on release at retail), but I guess you never know. Haven't had it for a few years, so couldn't say what's become of it, and haven't bought it since...
cheers,
Graeme

TORB · Post by **TORB** » Wed Dec 19, 2007 11:59 am

GG,

I am finding that a lot of the top d'Arry's wines go into a hole shortly after release; its so big it should probably called a crater rather than a hole.