The Birthday Bottle

Advantages: The most stunning Aussie wine I've ever tasted.
Disadvantages: I can't afford to drink it regularly.

...Do you know what one of the best things is about Ciao? You write an opinion and someone makes a comment. Before you know it you?re chatting away between Guest Books about all sorts of things. A couple of weeks ago I wrote an opinion about a supermarket and this provoked a comment about a rather superb wine that they sell. ?Ooh? I said ?we obviously share a taste in wines!? Then MrDarcy told me about d?Arenberg The Dead Arm Shiraz. ?It?s positively orgasmic!? he said. Well, that weekend was my daughter?s birthday and we always like to have a special bottle of wine to celebrate and there, on the supermarket shelf was the double-gold-medal-winning bottle I was looking for. Now sit down. It?s £17.99 a bottle, but as MrDarcy had told me, it would have been £60 a bottle if it had been a French wine. Did I think it was worth it...

SueMagee 29.10.2002 · Read review
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Review of D'Arenberg The Dead Arm

Definitely not "One" for Sorrow...

Advantages: Full Bodied
Disadvantages: Availability

...If I had to name a single vineyard as my favourite in terms of the quality of the wines it produces then for me that vineyard has to be D'Arenberg Estates. D'Arenberg is situated in the equally delightful McLaren Vale region of South Australia 40 km and within an easy reach of Adelaide. The winery has existed at this site for some 92 years and is now being run by the fourth generation of its founder family. D'Arenberg uses small batch processing to produce its wines, and while they are internationally available, many of its ranges are extremely difficult to get hold of. One of the best suppliers for the entire range is oddbins.com and independent stores such as Valvona and Crolla also stock several of the more unusual lines The Laughing Magpie is an extremely difficult bird to get hold of, however if you do a search via google, you...

helencbradshaw 20.04.2005 · Read review
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Review of D'Arenberg - Laughing Magpie Shiraz Viogni

Last, but by no Means Least

Advantages: complex
Disadvantages: a little okay

...If I had to name a single vineyard as my favourite in terms of the quality of the wines it produces then for me that vineyard has to be D?Arenberg Estates. D?Arenberg is situated in the equally delightful McLaren Vale region of South Australia 40 km and within an easy reach of Adelaide. The winery has existed at this site for some 92 years and is now being run by the fourth generation of its founder family. D?Arenberg uses small batch processing to produce its wines, and while they are internationally available, many of its ranges are extremely difficult to get hold of. One of the best suppliers for the entire range is oddbins.com and independent stores such as Valvona and Crolla have some lines. The Last Ditch 2003 Viognier (Vee-on-yay) is a relatively new wine in the range affectionally known together with the delightful (and in...

helencbradshaw 08.10.2004 · Read review
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Review of The Last Ditch Viognier

Delicate Essen

Advantages: Extraordinary range of products available
Disadvantages: none

...to the Italian variety, and I have to admit I am more of a fan of the WA Australia and NW wine variety at the moment. That said the last time we visited we managed to obtain a bottle of le chryma Christi (tears of Christ) Italian white wine as well as some Margaret River reds. The New World collection boasts wines from Australia, Chile, Argentina, New Zealand and south Africa (This is why you need money y?see). I particularly enjoy this section as Margaret River is by far the best wine making region in Australia and finding its wines in the UK is a challenging prospect. Today however I settled with a couple of tempting new selections from the D?Arenberg range of McLaren Vale, and Mount Riley Sauvignon from NZ, a taste which switched my wine allegiance totally when I first tasted it in Banff in 2001. The wine cellar also stocks specific...

helencbradshaw 29.08.2004 · Read review
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Review of Valvona&Crolla (Shop)

Classifying One's Coterie

Advantages: -
Disadvantages: -

...for a consumer opinion for major purchases. Equally I have often been inspired to make a major or minor purchase based on the opinion of the people who have been around for ever. So in no particular order once again, these COT members are Pumpkin (the second person I added, so she must have been here for ages, despite a wee sabbatical), Blurbubble (currently an OU student just like I was), Calypte, Sue Magee, with her Northern Connections and appreciation of D?Arenberg being the least of her qualities, Elainebaba, LostWitness, Mumsymary, who writes about just any household product, Mattygroves who we still see occasionally, Bwanamdevu, with his love of far flung places, Louise90, BigBaz, The Mad Cabbie with both the Scottish and Irish Links of my own family, Steve the Sleeve, hilariously funny and again with the links, Karen UK who can write about...

helencbradshaw 24.10.2004 · Read review
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Review of Introducing my Circle Of Trust (COT)