Arras Unshackled.
The story of Ed Carr and the House of Arras, Australia’s best sparkling wine producer.
Words by Campbell Mattinson
It’s often underestimated just how difficult it is to create great sparkling wine. It takes an enormous investment of time and therefore of money; from the time you plant the first vines to the time of your first release can easily be a decade, and given that the crafting of wine is a process of learning then it can easily be 15 or 20 years before it feels as though you’ve reached the starting line. This is why most sparkling wine, outside of the centuries-old infrastructure of Champagne, is an exercise in short cuts and compromises. This is why the Australian story of the House of Arras, and of Ed Carr’s commitment to it, is so important, not to mention remarkable.
Ed Carr, now Australia’s most celebrated maker of sparkling wine, first travelled to Tasmania in search of new sparkling frontiers more than thirty-five years ago (in 1988). The whole of Tasmania had just 44 hectares of vines back then. It now has over 2700. The journey of Arras, physically, didn’t start in 1988, though it did in Ed Carr’s mind. It’s true to say then that Ed Carr’s unwavering and single-minded commitment to the quality of the Arras sparkling wines has taken place as the industry around him has expanded 61-fold.
That is some kind of measure of how long this journey of Arras has been.
“Every where you drive in Tasmania now you see row guards of new vines,” Ed now says.
The first release of a House of Arras wine, made from Tasmanian grapes, was made from the 1995 vintage. Next year is the thirtieth birthday of Arras.
“What makes Arras unique is our winemaking style,” Ed says. “The big thing for us is the age of these wines at release. These wines have more maturation time than any other sparkling wines in Tasmania. There are exceptions, always, but the best sparkling wines around the world are released with this kind of age.” The wines are released as eight-year-olds, with six plus years on lees.
There are other unique aspects to Arras though. The most important of them is, clearly, the pure and distinctive quality of the wines.
What also makes Arras unique though is that it’s had several changes of ownership over the course of its history or, if that’s not quite putting it correctly, that it’s had some unstable times, in terms of its backing. The sparkling wines of Arras have never once looked shaky, every release has always been impeccable, but its future has looked decidedly so on a couple of occasions. BRL Hardy, Accolade and Constellation have all been listed as the owners, over the years, and credit where it’s due: Arras wouldn’t be the powerhouse it is today without the investment of these companies.
I mention this because it leads me to the point, some time last year, when it became known around the Australian wine industry that Arras had been put up for sale. The grand master and founding inspiration of great, modern Australian sparkling wine was being flogged off. Conversation, during that time, around the Australian wine industry, almost always turned at some point to Arras. Everybody, from fierce competitor to loyal friend, was concerned. It was one of Australian wine’s Saving Private Ryan moments. What became abundantly clear though through the course of all these conversations was that there was an incredible, and rare, feeling of warmth and care towards Arras, and more specifically, to Ed Carr’s life’s work.
Everybody wanted to save it.
“The sparkling wines of Arras have never once looked shaky, but its future has looked decidedly so on a couple of occasions.”
They did because it was unanimously seen to be something worth saving. The House of Arras is not just Australian sparkling royalty. When we drink the House of Arras we drink Australian sparkling wine history – fresh, real, alive and magnificent – as it is being made. The House of Arras is the very definition of respected. It may well often be underestimated just how difficult it is to create great sparkling wine, outside of Champagne. But within the wine community itself, this underestimation never occurs. Everybody knows exactly what, how, how much, how unlikely. And because of this, everybody knows what Ed Carr has committed, and given. As in, for thirty plus years, no matter what he felt or thought, Ed Carr has never budged an inch, or sacrificed quality a jot.
As in, Ed Carr has given one thing and one thing only, and that thing is, his all.
In a restaurant in a high rise building recently, at lunch, way up high there, Ed Carr presented the latest House of Arras wines. He said, in the most matter-of-fact of ways, “We are a long way into the journey.”
It was the first half of a sentence, but he paused, and because he did, this half-sentence had time to sink in. There were gale force winds outside that day, we could hear them buzzing the Rialto tower. There have been gale force winds in the past years of Arras too. Amid these winds, Ed Carr has stood solid.
“We still see,” Ed continued, “opportunities to expand what we know about winemaking, in the area of Tasmania.”
It takes decades, in sparkling wine, to get to the starting line. Last year William Dong, who owns Handpicked Wines, saved the House of Arras, by buying it. In doing so he allowed the Australian wine industry to breathe a sigh of relief and, more importantly, did lovers of sparkling wine around the world a favour.
Until this moment there had been two key eras of Arras. These two key eras were all about the wine, in the bottle; there’s pre 2006, and post 2006. The trend line of dosage levels in Arras have been downward over the years (“We would make a zero dosage wine if we thought that was what brought the wine into perfect balance. We just haven’t seen that balance. As the wines get older, and carry more depth and palate weight, they generally need less dosage anyway,” Ed says) to the point where dosage levels in the wines now are pretty much minimal. But the more important change at Arras was, in 2006, the addition of new oak to the winemaking regime, which has done nothing but elevate the quality inside the bottle.
It was a small change. But small changes, over time, are heightened.
Now though, we step into the third era of Arras. There’s a joy attached to these words. The House of Arras is no longer the cog of a corporate behemoth. These wines, these sparkling jewels, have always been hand-tended; they are now hand-owned, and enabled. Arras is now unshackled.
The brilliant new 2016 House of Arras sparkling wines will be released in October 2024.
Scores and reviews on The Winefront:
House of Arras Blanc de Blancs 2016
House of Arras Grand Vintage 2016
House of Arras Rosé 2016
Arras EJ Carr Late Disgorged 2009
Campbell Mattinson writes for The Winefront.
“When we drink Arras we drink Australian sparkling wine history – fresh, real, alive and magnificent – as it is being made. The House of Arras is the very definition of respected.”
