2015 d'Arenberg The Dead Arm Shiraz

96 POINTS

Ray Jordan - Winepilot

Comes off low-yielding, old dry-grown vines and treated in small batches ever so gently, even to the point of foot treading. As is normal at d’Arenberg, the wines were aged on lees with no racking and then no fining or filtering at bottling. It’s a super concentrated expression of the dark fruits of McLaren Vale with a light sprinkling of herbs and spices and a dollop of dark chocolate with dry savoury tannins to close.

96 POINTS

Joe Czerwinski - Robert Parker Wine Advocate

Black cherries and black olives mark the nose of the 2015 The Dead Arm Shiraz, d'Arenberg's flagship bottling. It's a blend of older and younger vines from different sites, depending on what the fruit has to offer. Full-bodied, concentrated and firmly structured, it's nevertheless velvety on the long finish, picking up hints of licorice and tarragon. It should be approachable sooner than The Coppermine Road Cabernet, but it still deserves a couple of years in the cellar.

96 POINTS

James Halliday - Halliday Wine Companion

This is a particularly good Dead Arm, its alcohol miraculously the same as the '14, but however that may be, it has an elegance to its mouthfeel and lingering finish.

94 POINTS

James Suckling

The 2015 Dead Arm is a great and formidable wine. It is packed with deeply concentrated dark-plum and blackberry aromas and flavors. There is a streak of red, spicy, smoky and meaty complexity, as well as a genius fusion of power and elegance. Best from 2022.

93 POINTS

Josh Raynolds - Vinous

Opaque, bright-rimmed violet. A highly perfumed bouquet evokes ripe black and blue fruits, vanilla, licorice and baking spices, and a smoky mineral overtone builds with aeration. Stains the palate with appealingly sweet blackberry, cherry cola and mocha flavors that show excellent clarity and depth. Delivers a suave blend of power and delicacy and finishes very long, spicy and energetic, with repeating blue fruit character and youthfully chewy tannic grip.

93 POINTS

Campbell Mattinson - The Wine Front

Talking of substantial, this 2015 version of The Dead Arm Shiraz certainly is that. It has the might, it has the power, it’s never had the pleasure of nuance but then the style and indeed target market isn’t going to miss it.  This is a red wine of brute, brooding power. It’s a horse-hearted wine, blackberry and saltbush, clove and gunnmetal flavours coursing through its veins. It tastes sweet, stewed and exaggerated but it feels neat, balanced and intentional. The back half of the wine is all tight sheets of tannin, studded with saltbush and related iodine. Oak? Cedary, but sunk deep into the wine. It’s as hard a wine to fault as it is to love; it lacks charm but is both immaculate and concentrated.

92 POINTS

Sarah Ahmed - Decanter

Osborn describes 2015 as the gutsiest vintage of recent years. The grapes were picked between 10 February and 25 March. Imposing tannins frame a concentrated core of blackberry and currant fruit, with a bitter chocolate edge. Earth, kelp, fennel seed and liquorice notes amp up the savouriness. Finishes firm, the tannins a touch gruff. Needs time to resolve, when it may well warrant a higher score. This one's a keeper.

92 POINTS

2018 - Decanter World Wine Awards

Brooding jammy dark fruit nose, cloves and vanilla coming through. Good use of oak on herbaceous minty palate, cedar tannins. Award: Silver - DWWA 2018