Arras latest releases: Awe-inspiring


The launch of House of Arras’s latest cuvées was an opportunity to try special wines old and new in the company of the Tasmanian sparkling wine producer’s chief winemaker, Ed Carr, reports Anne Krebiehl MW


London, was crammed with polished glasses. A few writers had been invited to taste the 2022 Arras Global Release, including all the cuvées in the 2014 Vintage Collection plus the Museum Release of the 2005 vintage—but we could see that there was a larger number of bottles lined up. This boded well. A giant screen was set up, and Ed Carr, chief winemaker and the visionary behind House of Arras in Tasmania, was beamed in from his home in Australia. Carr announced that 2022 “marks two milestones for the House of Arras,” then adds: “25 years of sourcing 100 percent Tasmanian fruit, and the tenth consecutive release of EJ Carr


T


he table in the private dining room of 67 Pall Mall, a private members’ club for wine lovers in


Late Disgorged Vintage Sparkling.” He had much to say, because this really is a milestone to be celebrated, but in his usual self-deprecating fashion, “we” remained his preferred personal pronoun—despite him being the luminary behind the idea, as well as the winemaker. The House of Arras is owned by Accolade Wines (itself owned by US-based private equity investors The Carlyle Group), which has kept this capital- and time-intensive product as one of the jewels in its fine-wine crown, even as it divests itself of other vineyards —simply because Carr has created a world-class product in record time.1 Not only is Arras “the most-awarded sparkling-wine brand” in Australia, as the company literature says, but Carr is Australia’s “most-awarded winemaker.”


“From the outset, our mission was


to blend, craft, and release wines at the point of perfect harmony,” Carr said. “We’ve been in Tasmania for more than 25 years now, and what is important to us is that we have learned a lot about the individual vineyard areas. Tasmania is considered to be one GI [geographical indication, the Australian designation for a protected origin], but really the number of microclimates and subregions we work from is quite amazing. Over 25 years, we have learned a lot about individual sites and where they fit in, about the matrix of blends they make,” said Carr. “We did start off in 1995 with the concept of a single


Below: House of Arras chief winemaker Ed Carr, celebrating two important milestones in 2022.


THE WORLD OF FINE WINE | ISSUE 79 | 2023 | 83


All photography courtesy of House of Arras


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