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Arras, Tasmania (Australia) – interview with Ed Carr ( #notachampagnewine )
AGT Wine Magazine Winemaker of the Year 2011 Ed Carr, the man who makes Australia’s most famous world class sparkling wine ARRAS from Tasmania, certainly knows his bubbles – in fact he’s Australia’s most awarded sparkling winemaker and also a huge fan of champagne. In the last two decades he’s bagged more than one hundred trophies at Australian wine shows. Ed began his wine career in 1977 at the Wynn Wine Growers Group Glenloth winery in Reynella, as a Microbiologist. He was appointed Assistant Winemaker in 1984 and two years later relocated to Nuriootpa as Seaview Sparkling winemaker, where he managed the on-site Traditional Method Cellars. Ed joined Constellation Wines Australia…
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Camel Valley, Cornwall (UK) – Interview with Bob & Sam Lindo (#notachampagnewine )
Winemaking is Camel Valley (UK) founder and former RAF pilot Bob Lindo’s third career. In-between flying and fizz there was a spell of sheep farming before he discovered that his sun-drenched property on the banks of the River Camel was better suited to growing grapes for sparkling wine. Multi-award winner Bob and his son Sam make quintessentially Cornish wine for local people, and has no designs whatsoever on global export or industrial size growth. Bob is very proud that his English sparkling is note: #notachampagnewine . Bob’s son Sam has won English winemaker of the year in two out of the past four years, and Camel Valley’s sparkling rose made…
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Yarra Valley at a glance
Location: 40kms East of Melbourne, Victoria. Climate: in Australian terms cool – warmer than Burgundy, yet cooler than Bordeaux. First settled in 1840, the Yarra Valley is noted for its capacity to make outstanding wines from a range of grape varieties including multi-award winning styles of chardonnay, pinot noir and shiraz. My personal favourites include Coldstream Hills and Yering Station. The classic Yarra Valley soils, found in the centre and north of the valley, are ancient grey sandy clays and clay loams where vines struggles to establish themselves and vineyards are low yielding. The other soil type is a much younger brilliant red volcanic soil, found in both the uppers…
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Jansz – aka ‘Methode Tasmanoise’
Although a wine made by the island’s first vigneron (Mr Bartholomew Broughton) actually won an award at the Paris Exhibition of 1848, it was Jansz that became Tasmania’s first sparkling wine to be made according to the traditional méthode champenoise. In 1986 the Rouzaud family (owners of Champagne Louis Roederer) and and its former head Jean-Claude was personally involved in establishing the vineyard for this ambitious sparkling wine project. The Hill Smiths of Yalumba, who had read a Moet & Chandon report on the Tamar region back in the 1980s and closely monitored the progress of these sparkling sites with interest, bought the estate from Andrew Pirie in 1997, immediately…
with Champagne Jayne