The Auswine Forum

It seems as though there is a lot of this wine around-nothwithstanding insatiable demand for the 02 vintage and being a wine investor's staple stock due it's Parker mould.

When securing a six pack through cellar door recently, I enquired as to how much Dead Arm was produced. The CD staff indicated they were not privy to that information.

The D'Arenberg website indicates "some" of the fruit destined for the Dead Arm comes from old vines affected by the Eutypa Lata disease.

Was it always this way? I am sure, orignally, the wine a little more exclusive and specific. It would seem that now any high quality fruit goes into the Dead Arm, which in turn, makes plenty of the wine available on the domestic and international markets.

In any case, a superbly marketed wine with a possibly romantic illusion to old, one armed vines.

Any more tasting notes on the 02 aswell?

To my knowledge it's always been the case that the Dead Arm has been made from more sources than the Eutypa Lata affected vines. There's not enough of them to produce a commercial quantity.

The Dead Arm name and story are romantic, but it's really just a sales pitch for the label. That said, I think they are quite fussy about what goes in, and supply is always limited - any excess goes into the fortified shiraz, and from what I've heard the 2002 is very scarce less than a week after the release date.

Cheers
Ian