Sparkling wine harvest impresses

THE Tasmanian wine grape harvest is well under way and the fruit quality is high, according to House of Arras chief winemaker Ed Carr.

Based in South Australia, Mr Carr was in Tasmania last week to oversee the delivery of grapes to the Arras winery at Pipers River – and he noted that picking of chardonnay, pinot noir and pinot meunier for its sparklings was not in its usual order for vintage 2025.

“Last week was a big milestone where we had around 450 tonnes of fruit make its way into the winery from our growers, and interestingly the majority of our pinot noir arrived before our chardonnay,” he said.

“Some of our growers in the Tamar Valley and East Coast regions finished, while the Upper Derwent and Coal River and Relbia were mostly picked this week, finishing the sparkling harvest by the end of March.

“We started with pinot noir harvest on the East Coast and in the Upper Derwent, but ever since then it’s swung the other way. At one point both varieties were coming in at once which really tested our planning and processes.”

A production line of trucks full of grapes, forklifts unloading and pouring the harvest – both hand-picked and mechanically picked  into vats for crushing by two presses, made a hive of activity in the vast sheds while the cellar door continued to welcome visitors and hold events.

“Fruit quality is very high with the grapes expressing intense varietal characters,” Mr Carr said.

“The grapes have also retained a firm natural acidity which is somewhat surprising in this warmer year, I’d expect the wines to show great minerality and aging potential.”

He said the weather conditions have been generally good and dry for Tasmania, making it an ideal growing season.

House of Arras looks set to continue to lead the way on the national and international sparkling wine market, with the list of accolades and award wins continuing to flow thick and fast.

Last year the brand won gold, silver and bronze at the prestigious Decanter World Wine Awards, International Wine Challenge and the Champagne and Sparkling World Championships.

Mr Carr was named Sparking Wine Maker of the Year in London at the International Wine Challenge – just the second time an award has gone to a non-champagne brand.

The recognition has been 30 years in the making for Mr Carr, the founding winemaker for Arras when it produced its first crush in 1994.

At that time owner Hardy Wine Company was looking to enter the cold climate sparkling wine market – the Arras brand it established soon taking on a life of its own as the concept grew from being a single wine to a range of wines, growing in status and volume to proportions that even Mr Carr didn’t envisage.

“I believe it is the quality of grapes that Tasmania grows that has taken our wine to this level, and while the way we make wine hasn’t changed over the years, we have grown in confidence in ageing our wines.

“Our first release Arras was four years old and at the time we felt that was a long time to mature.

“Now we’ve got releases on the market from 2005 and 2006, approaching 17-20 years old – that’s what amazes us about Tasmanian sparkling wine in the style that we make – it ages so well and we get a lot of complexity and depth from that.”

Arras wines are sold outside Australia in the UK, Europe and more recently, China.

About 18 months ago the brand was purchased by Sydney-based, family company DMG Wines, led by William Dong, who is putting even greater focus on quality as well as quantity.

“We’ll keep on doing what we’re good at, with new releases this year including the 2017 vintage and a special release anniversary wine to celebrate 30 years of House of Arras,” Mr Carr said.