Tracy Renkin, journalist

First published August 18 2018 in the TasWeekend magazine (The Hobart Mercury)

It was just a passing compliment. But it’s a compliment that has Tasmania’s wine industry abuzz. One of the world’s top experts has likened our sparkling wines to the best French champagnes. And that expert is cellar master Cyril Brun – a fourth-generation French champagne maker, one of the true greats of the celebrated winemaking region, and a man who is typically hard to impress.

Brun is the Chef de Caves for Charles Heidsieck, arguably one of the most respected houses of champagne in the world.

When Brun makes comments about sparkling wine, people tend to sit up straight and listen. He flew to Tasmania for the first time in late July to be a part of a special sparkling wine weekend at the Saffire Freycinet resort on the East Coast. At the end of the weekend, Brun sat down with TasWeekend to reflect on his adventure.

First, he described Tasmania as a terrific, pristine and preserved treasure. He said he had been enjoying Tasmanian sparkling wine for several years after picking up some of our bottles in the UK. Tasmanian sparkling had great potential, he said, it impressed him. And then, he said this: “Every time I taste the sparkling wine from Tasmania I feel like it is the one that could be potentially the closest to champagne.”

“That is very cool,” Wine Tasmania chief executive Sheralee Davies exclaimed when told of Brun’s comparison. “It is a seriously, big compliment to Tasmania. To have that kind of feedback about our sparkling wine from someone from such a well-respected sparkling wine region is very significant.

“To have someone from Champagne with his expertise say that about Tasmanian sparkling wine is huge.”

Davies says the compliment is even more meaningful given the French are so fiercely protective of their wine culture.

“It is exciting on many levels – one: is the fact Tasmania is even on Brun’s radar; two: is that he has an appreciation for the quality of our sparkling wine; and three: his view on comparisons between Champagne and Tasmania can only ever be favourably received. Champagne is universally regarded as the home of champagne so this is high praise indeed. It is quite ­extraordinary. Here we are at the bottom of the world. To get that sort of perspective is so incredibly valuable. We don’t need every person on the planet to know about our Tasmanian sparkling wine, but if we can let a small amount of influential people know about us, then that can be the difference between growing our global reputation or not.”

According to Tyson Stelzer – one of Australia’s top wine critics and the man who organised the Saffire Sparkling weekend – the compliment from Brun is an important comparison that could be massive for Tasmania. “It is the strongest endorsement that might be possible because,” Stelzer says, “not only are the Champenois obviously privy to the greatest sparkling wines on earth but they are also perhaps rightfully jealously guarding of that premium sparkling space. And for them to be complimentary towards any other region at all is perhaps the strongest endorsement that the great makers of Tasmania could receive. By every measure Tasmania is making the best sparkling wines in Australia and on a global stage there is nobody making better wines than Tasmania outside of Champagne itself.”

About one third of the wine made in Tasmania is sparkling. But on a global scale our sparkling wine production is minute. Davies estimates that of the 160 licensed wine producers in Tasmania, about 45 are making sparkling wine, and of that only 2 per cent makes it on to the international market.

But what we lack in quantity, she says, we definitely make up for in quality.

The growth in champagne consumption in Australia is sky rocketing. We are the fastest growing champagne consumers on the planet. Our annual national champagne consumption has gone from less than one million bottles a year 16 years ago, to a current eight-and-a-half million bottles a year. Perhaps following in the footsteps of that champagne popularity is the perception and consumption of Tasmanian sparkling wine. Tasmania is making more sparkling wine now than it ever has, and it is in greater demand than ever before.

This month, Stelzer will be taking his top Tasmanian sparkling wines to showcase in New York and San Francisco alongside some of the best champagnes available globally. He did the same last year and was blown away by the buzz Tasmanian sparkling wines created. “We had Carol Duval Leroy who is the owner and the name of champagne Duval Leroy – she’s developed this house to the 15th largest in Champagne in the last 20 years,” he says. She asked to try the top Tasmanian sparkling wines and afterwards she was full of praise. Stelzer says she said: “Thank you for showing me such amazing wines, I almost said ‘champagnes’ because they are on the same level.”

When Stelzer tells these stories his pride for Tasmania is etched into his smile lines. The reason for that pride, he says, is that in tasting wines blind in wine show line-ups or at home when he knows what he’s tasting, Tasmania’s sparkling wine comes out so far ahead.

Stelzer tastes thousands of champagnes and sparkling wines every year. He reviews more than 500 Australian sparkling wines annually, and has been winning awards for his books and wine writing for a decade. Stelzer’s known Brun for eight years, met with him a dozen times, and describes him as one of the most fanatical wine makers in Champagne right now. But Stelzer says, Brun is also possibly the best.

“He has an uncanny ability to blend his knowledge of the vineyards and his insight into the wines,” he says.

Brun believes that Tasmania could be the country with the closest temperature to Champagne. Their grape quality is also similar, he says, but the soils are vastly different. Champagne has chalk as its bedrock and Tasmania’s soil varies between clay, sand and loam.

Brun says Tasmanian sparkling wine producers have also been inspired by the makers in Champagne.

“Some of these Tasmanian producers of sparkling wine have learnt our tricks that you need to know to fine-tune the making of your bubbles,” he says.

Brun’s favourite glass of bubbles that weekend was the House of Arras magnum: EJ Carr Late Disgorged 2002. House of Arras winemaker Ed Carr says it’s described as an elegant and ­vibrant sparkling and it will set you back $199 for a 750ml bottle.

“There is limited stock of the 2002 in the magnum and the 2003 in the 750ml as we are just about to roll with the 2003 Magnum and the 2004 in the 750ml,” he says. According to Brun, it’s worth lashing out for: “It was really, really, super well balanced, and really well set up as a sparkling wine”. He sighted a soil tasting difference but says, “otherwise it could be as similar to champagne”.

House of Arras is Australia’s most awarded sparkling wine brand. Its maker Ed Carr has been exclusively using Tasmanian grapes for Arras since the 1990s. He has collected a swag of prestigious national and international awards and accolades.

So far this year, House of Arras has won three gold medals at the Champagne and Sparkling Wine World Championships for the EJ Carr Late Disgorged 2002 magnum, Museum Release Blancs 2001 and the Grand Vintage 2008. At the beginning of August Carr also picked up a varietal award in the Halliday Wine Companion 2019 edition for his 2006 House of Arras Rosé. Last year he took home the Best Sparkling Trophy in every capital city wine show in Australia (Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Perth and Hobart), an achievement that had never been done before. In the same year, House of Arras also won the Best Australian Producer trophy at the International Wine and Spirit Competition – the first time it has been awarded to a sparkling wine brand.

“I think it’s brilliant that Tasmanian sparkling wine is doing so well,” Carr says. “Tasmanian sparkling is holding a very high ground at the top of the table. Tasmania has matured I guess and these wines have such longevity. You can age them for so long, they pick up that lovely complexity, but they are still bright and fresh, which to me is world-class.”

Davies says that despite the Champagne comparison being something worth celebrating, our Tasmanian sparkling wine represents and tastes like Tasmania.

“Nobody else can replicate the taste of our sparkling wine because it is unique to Tasmania,” she says. “Because Tasmania is an island we have maritime influences. Each season is different. The sparkling wine we produce here in Tasmania is not going to be like anything else in the world.”

There are many great sparkling wine events being held in Tasmania in November as part of the Effervescence Tasmania festival. effervescencetasmania.com

TOP 5 MISTAKES WE MAKE WITH SPARKLING WINE

We serve it in the wrong glass

Ditch the old-fashioned, slim flutes and grab a tulip shaped glass instead.

Brun: “When you are serving sparkling wine in a large bowl, it will amplify the complexities of the flavours, the complexities of the notes. A wider glass will emphasise the bouquet. A larger glass will give you a much better respect for the profile of the sparkling wine as well as the maker behind it.”

Stelzer: “Narrow flutes are so small that you don’t have the opportunity to appreciate the beautiful aroma of the wine. By giving the wine a chance to open up, you can actually get your nose inside the glass. A white wine glass is what the people of Champagne serve their wine in because it gives the wine an opportunity to really express its true character. If it is opened up in a big glass it can show every detail.”

We serve it too cold

Brun: “Technically champagne is mostly consumed faster than any wine. When you are drinking sparkling wine you will drink your glass in five to 10 minutes, which means we have such a short time to the wine to fully express and sometimes sadly the wine is served too cold so that it will not fully develop.

Stelzer: “In general the finer the champagne, the warmer I tend to serve it. The Champenois suggest 8C-10C for non-vintage and rosé styles, and 10C-12C for vintage and prestige wines.”

We think it is just for women

Stelzer: “I think there have been stereotypes around sparkling wine that we now see are being broken down around the world. For example, that rosé is a sweet, girlie drink. That’s not the case at all. Sparkling rosé is a massive category globally and globally we are seeing rosé just as popular among male drinkers as females.”

We only drink sparkling for a special celebration

Brun: “We also make this mistake sometimes in France but we are learning that even if we have nothing particularly special to celebrate, we can still want to crack open a bottle of champagne. When you are living somewhere where they are making better and better sparkling wine and you love the product, then you don’t need a special reason to open a bottle.”

We wash our glasses with detergent

Stelzer: “Never wash wine glasses with detergent. This rule is even more crucial for sparkling wines because detergent residue will destroy not only aroma and flavour but also the sparkling bead or mousse. Hot water is all you need to wash glasses. Lipstick can be removed from glasses with a dry tissue.”