South Australia 2018 harvest
The d'Arenberg Cube in McLaren Vale.
(Image credit: Sylvia Wu / Decanter)

Decanter experts give their verdict, tasting notes and drinking windows on d’Arenberg wines from Australia.

After a century of winemaking in McLaren Vale, this family-owned producer overs some of the best value in Australia. And it’s all done with guts and gusto, backed by tenacity and talent.


See our top five d’Arenberg wines to try…

d'Arenberg, Money Spider Roussanne, McLaren Vale, South Australia, Australia, 2017

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91

Juicy, textural cantaloupe, papaya and apricot fruit on the nose and palate with vibrant, lingering lime acidity. Perfect match for sea bass ceviche with mango salsa. The Roussanne grapes see light skin contact and only free-run juice is used, with no oak or malolactic fermentation to preserve the fruit purity. Winemaker Chester Osborn describes it as 'Hunter Valley Semillon with more flavour' and recommends cellaring it up to a decade. The first vintage from South Australia's first Roussanne vines was in 2000, and the small 1.5 tonne crop of grapes had several hundred money spiders on them. Osborn was told they were a good luck charm and not to kill them by making the wine, but he did. Was it a coincidence that the wine was ruined by accidental over acidification? In 2001 the spiders had moved out of the vineyard and Osborn named the new wine after them.

2017

South AustraliaAustralia

d'ArenbergMcLaren Vale

d'Arenberg, Dead Arm Shiraz, McLaren Vale, South Australia, Australia, 2014

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Inviting aromas of spicy plum and bright red fruit lead to a peaty, earthy palate with much darker bramble and chocolate notes. Sooty, irony minerality...

2014

South AustraliaAustralia

d'ArenbergMcLaren Vale

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d'Arenberg, Pollyanna Polly Sparkling, South Australia, Australia

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Bottled unfined and unfiltered, this shows delicate nutty toastiness under a long, fruit-forward and creamy palate of apple, peach, lemon zest alongside stony minerals. These...

South AustraliaAustralia

d'Arenberg

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d'Arenberg, Derelict Vineyard Grenache, McLaren Vale, South Australia, Australia, 2013

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Beautiful tarry, savoury earthiness in this wine shows real sense of place. It spends 12 months in old French and American oak barriques which lends...

2013

South AustraliaAustralia

d'ArenbergMcLaren Vale

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d'Arenberg, Coppermine Road Cabernet Sauvignon, McLaren Vale, South Australia, Australia, 2014

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This opens with lifted aromas of primary purple berry fruit, vanilla spice and floral notes, leading to a restrained and structured palate of fresh dark...

2014

South AustraliaAustralia

d'ArenbergMcLaren Vale

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