d'Arenberg The Ironstone Pressings Grenache Shiraz Mourvèdre 2006

Brent Gushowaty rated this wine as 92/100 with the following review:

Eye:
Medium depth with a garnet rim.

Nose:
Bushy/garrigue/bramble notes & projected complex berry fruit.

Palate:
Plush mouth feel, tart but complex berry fruit, tannins have softened with age and revealed brambly, fresh/savoury fruit with some minerality. Excellent grape expression all around, a supple, balanced and accessible wine with great interesting tension between sweet/savoury fruit and garrigue/dry herb notes.

Value Rating: 89

Date Tasted: May 28, 2015



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Mymi Thesingingsommelier rated this wine as 90/100 with the following review:

In 1912, Joseph Osborn purchased vineyard land after being told by a doctor that his son Frank’s poor health would benefit from life on the land. Francis Ernest (‘Frank’) Osborn then left medical school, choosing to forsake the scalpel for pruning shears and went on to marrying Helena d’Arenberg in 1920. Hence the name of the property!
Now on its 4th generation, with chief wine maker and viticulturist Chester d’Arenberg Osborn, the winemaking processes of the past have been maintained, capturing the unique small-batch character of the wines and the true flavour of the McLaren Vale region.
All grapes, red and white, are basket-pressed. The reds are still traditionally fermented with the grape skins (caps) submerged in open wax-lined concrete fermenters utilising the age-old technique of foot-treading, yes for real!
Chester believes in minimal interference to preserve quality. All of their wines feature the foot trod/basket pressed logo as a 'badge of honour' for the hard work that goes into producing their wonderful wines.
Now owners of multiple vineyard sites, each with its own characteristics and personality, all of them thriving with no fertiliser or herbicide, minimal to no irrigation and no soil cultivation.
D’Arenberg is universally known for their oddly named wines and that bold red stripe on the bottle but it is worth mentioning that they produce over 60 different wines that vary in style from white, red, fortified, sparkling to dessert!
The 2006 Ironstone Pressings is a blend of 70% Grenache, 25% Shiraz and 5% Mourvedre.
The name comes from the plentiful amount of ironstone present in the soil structure of the original Grenache block planted in 1918.
In the glass, it is a light ruby red with generous legs!
It is of low intensity on the nose with aromas of dark chocolate, cranberries, raspberries, rhubarb jam and a little meat.
Generous and lavish palate!!! It is a beautiful beast! Spicy, a little mineraly, with plum, cherries, cranberries, a little dried herb. Very well structured with chewy tannins, bright acidity and an enormously long finish!
Enjoy with herb crusted roast chicken dinner with home-made gravy smothered mashed potatoes!