(2024) From Tasmania's Pipers River region in the north of the island, soils are red basalt and this wine was matured in French oak barriques (24% new). The estate was purchased by the Hill-Smith Family who also own Jansz, one of Tasmania's top sparkling wine producers. Garnet in colour, it has real Pinosity with a sappy, autumnal truffly character over cherry and raspberry fruit. Some chocolate and spicy oak notes add complexity. In the mouth it walks a line between fresh, raspberry-like keen fruit and something more luxurious and dark, soft, sweet and plush tannins and cherry acidity keeping it fresh into a moderately long and spicy finish.
(2023) Part barrel-fermented, the blend of this cuvée is 54% Chardonnay and 46% Pinot Noir, the wine having spent four years on the lees before disgorgement on 15th January 2020. The dosage is 5g/l.
(2023) A wine I have not tasted since the 2007 vintage, and what a treat it is. Arras describe vintage 2013 as having "an exceptional balance of sugar, acidity and flavour." Released after seven years on the lees, this blend of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir has a pale gold colour and arresting nose of hazelnut, brioche light honey and fat lemony fruit. In the mouth the creaminess of texture, almost chocolaty mouthfeel has ripe and expansive fruit, but it is licked into shape by a core of shimmering acidity, just a touch of saline character, but really juicy citrus too.
(2022) A single vineyard Pinot, clone G5V12, grown organically 30 kilometeres from the coast. Fermented with indigenous wild yeasts, 25% whole bunches, and spending eight months in French oak puncheons, 20% of which were new. Delicate colour. Another very fragrant, perfumed Pinot. There is a hint of cocoa in the background here, fleshy red fruit too. On the palate this is the sweetest fruit of the line-up so far, really charming and ripe, quite plump, with a cool combination of acidity and very tight, fine tannin. Great length here.
(2022) A nice pale colour and a gorgeous nose, so aromatic, suffused with coffee, peppery spice and rose-hip over cherry-ripe red fruit. On the palate it has a surge of sweet, succulent ripeness, quite mouth-filling and very juicy, then a tightly-focused phallanx of plum-skin acidity and creamy tannin extends the finish beautifully.
(2022) From vineyards planted in silica over sandstone in 1988 in the southerly Coal River Valley. Wild-fermentation and 12 months ageing in French oak barriques, one-third new. Lees was stirred monthly and the wine went through malolactic. Again, gunflinty smokiness all over the aromatics here, the most prominent example here of the style, some buttery toast and stone fruits beneath. The Palate bursts with sweet and ripe fruit, nodding towards the tropical, but focused around fat, sweet but sharp lime and lemon. Great length here, the balance very good as that flinty and salty aspect is present, but not overplayed. Delicious.
(2022) Blending 55% Chardonnay with Pinot Noir, this has 4g/l of dosage and spent eight years on the lees, disgorged 15th June 2020. In years of exceptional quality some of the vintage is held back, for that extra ageing and late disgorging. What an exquisite wine it is, having spent 2,471 days in Jansz' cellars, part fermented in barrel for seven months. The nose is sumptuous, blending hazelnut and vanilla tuilles with ripe peach and pear, a touch of fresh, earthy mushroom and suggesting terrific depth to come. On the palate the creamy mousse gives way to very sharply-defined citrus, that backing of a more earthy, yeasty meatiness, then dating acidity to finish.
(2022) Rarely produced, the single vineyard Chardonnay represents excellent vintages and is made in very small volumes - 2,772 bottles in this vintage. With a dosage of 4g/l and spending three years on the lees, it was disgorged on 27th February 2019. Pale straw/gold with streaming bubbles, lightly buttery pastry notes, small floral nuances and creamy, waxy lemon fruit. The palate is crisp, very fresh and zippy, but then the creaminess of the lees ageing and quite grippy combination of acidity and texture gives weight and depth.
(2022) Partial fermentation in oak barrels for this blend of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir which spent a full four years on the lees (disgorged January 2020). It has 5g/l of dosage. Pale gold in colour, there's so much biscuit and a light almond sheen of nuttiness, a little salty, briney freshness and good, zesty citrus aromas. In the mouth a very satisfying vintage cuvée, despite the low dosage it is filled with ripe and succulent fruit, but the delicate nuttiness, earthiness and that saline character does not falter, the fruit sweetness balanced by a very fine line of acidity.
(2021) Ace sparkling winemaker Ed Carr has fashioned this from the three main Champagne grapes, with barrel fermentation of the base wines adding an extra layer of creamy depth. It is super impressive, vanilla, light buttery and toasty aromas and a fat lemony fruit base. On the palate a nice persistent mousse, plenty of bold flavour, and a pure, exhilarating blast of saline and citrus acidity that slices through some ripe, opulent mid-palate fruit. Watch the video for more information
