d'Arenberg The Derelict Vineyard Grenache

Notes - Some years ago, chief winemaker, Chester Osborn, sought out additional premium Grenache fruit from McLaren Vale to meet the high demand for d'Arenberg's Grenache-based wines. Amongst others, a particular vineyard planted thirty years ago with Grenache appeared promising, and was the inspiration behind the naming of this wine.  The exceptionally low-yielding Grenache was picked late in vintage, gently crushed, fermented and pressed before barrel fermentation and maturation for 12 months in older French & American oak barriques. Chester's tasting notes - It is a black wine with a great purple hue. Intense, young purple fruits and flowers combine with meat, earth and fresh bitumen to yield an intense, extremely inviting aroma. The palate starts with a huge Wam! of flavour. Thick, ripe mulberries, blackberries and blueberries  progress into a rich, gutsy, liquorish and bitumen palate, followed by masses of powerful, youthful, gritty fruit tannins, layered with tonnes of flowery, cranberry and dark fruit flavours, and a youhful acidity. This is a wine of intense concentration.  With time, the tannins will somewhat soften and integrate as the fruit flavours open. The palate, while richer, further turns into avery fuill glycerol, chocolate, spicy and ripe fruit wine, with great length and acidity. Robert Parker in the Wine Advocate, October 2005 - ‘The raspberry, cherry and kirsch-scented and flavoured Derelict Vineyard Grenache is a medium-bodied, straight forward effort that is ideal for drinking over the next several years.’ 88 Points.
 
     

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