"The big, dense ruby/purple-colored 2000 The Footbolt Shiraz possesses plenty of camphor-infused blackberry fruit along with underbrush, licorice, and earth notes. As with most of the d'Arenberg reds, the oak is kept well in the background. With medium to full body, and excellent texture as well as richness, this 2000 Shiraz will drink well for another 5-7 years."
Robert Parker, Wine Advocate # 143
Oct 2002
"For the story behind this wine we have to go back to d'Arry's grandfather, Joseph Rowe Osborn. Born in 1852 he was a colourful character with a multitude of talents. Joe was a lay preacher, mining speculator, public servant, teetotaler and local politician. Although not a drinker, Joe joined the Thomas Hardy & Sons wine company in 1881, eventually becoming a partner and director.
Joe was an enthusiastic patron of the turf and became a well- respected racing identity under the nom-de-plume of Mr. J. Rowen. 'Footbolt' was a chestnut colt foaled in 1898 and bought for 400 guineas, a sum quickly recouped after only 6 races. These and other wins enabled Joe to purchase the already established Milton Vineyards for his son, Frank, d'Arry's father, in 1912.
This wine is still made from some of the grapes from the vines purchased by Joe almost a century ago.
As with all of our red wines, the Footbolt Shiraz undergoes crushing by the Demoisy crusher and gentle basket pressing by the 19th century 'Coq' and 'Bromley & Tregoning' presses into new but mainly older American and French oak barriques for up to 18 months maturation. The Footbolt Shiraz undergoes minimal processing and as such may throw a deposit in the bottle. This is a wine which will benefit from further bottle age, as will most of d'Arenberg's reds.
Chester's Tasting Notes:
The young Footbolt Shiraz has a deep red-purple, then the immediate hallmarks of spicy, lifted ripe peppery mulberry and blackberry fruit aromas. Richer chocolate, stewed plum mint and spicy, cedary pepper smells and often cinnamon follow the initial attack of primary fruit characters.
d'Arenberg's The Footbolt Shiraz palate is consistently well structured with terrific fruit and totally integrated oak tannin providing great texture to support plum, blackcurrant and rolling blackberry flavours especially on the mid-palate. Often dark chocolate characters are quite evident too. This is followed by a traditional, long, velvety, fine grained tannin finish.
The Footbolt Shiraz will gain complexity with age, as with all d'Arenberg red wines. The aromas slowly incorporate developed cedar, coffee and developed dark chocolate smells with leather, tobacco and earthy aromas while always maintaining great fruit characters from spicy through to very ripe, depending on the vintage.. More often than not distinctive peppery-spicy characters come to the fore after a little time in bottle.
On the tongue, the Footbolt Shiraz maintains a wonderfully textured palate with significant bottle age. Gentle, grainy black olive flavours balance the sweeter coffee, chocolate and occasional mint characters. The hallmarks of McLaren Vale, d'Arenberg, and The Footbolt Shiraz; a soft, rich middle palate, terrific texture and a long rolling finish, can reside with this wine for a number of years, even decades, as more than four decades of previous vintages have shown.."
Tasting Notes, www.darenberg.com.au
Country:
Australia
Region:
SA- McLaren Vale
Variety:
Wine Red - Shiraz
Size:
1500mL
