A glittering vision

A young Ed came to Australia from England with his parents in the 1960s and the family settled in Adelaide. From an early age he had a brain for science, studying chemistry and microbiology after completing high school, but he never had much interest in winemaking – until he ended up working in a winery lab near McLaren Vale.

There he met winemaker Norm Walker, who would go on to become a major influence on Ed’s career. But first there was a problem: Norm needed help with a fermentation issue and wondered if Ed could help, given his expertise in microbiology. Despite having no experience in winemaking, Ed solved the problem and became an assistant winemaker, learning the traditional, handcrafted method of making sparkling wine. “It was so basic – no technology, all manual,” he says. “But [it was] inspiring in a way; something different from other winemaking.” Penfolds bought the company and over time Ed became a sparkling specialist.

But back in the 1980s it was hard to get his hands on grapes that would produce the elegant, traditional method wines he was aiming for. Australian sparkling wasn’t yet known for its quality and Ed wanted to change that. Around that time, Australia’s cool-climate regions began emerging – and that was the answer Ed had been searching for. He’d source top-quality grapes from premium cool-climate regions and finally be able to make his world-class sparkling wine.

“I remember a cool-climate tour in 1988 of regions that we [now] take for granted,” he says. “We visited Tasmania – 46 hectares of vines in 1988. Today, over 2,000 hectares of vines. And that’s pretty inspiring.”

Discovering a treasure island

In the early 1990s, as Senior Sparkling Winemaker for Penfolds, Ed was ready for a change and moved to Hardys Wines, where he was charged with establishing the company as one of Australia’s leading sparkling wine producers. In 1995, Ed and his team sourced their first grapes from Tasmania – then a small, up-and-coming wine region – and they tasted potential. That year House of Arras was launched to develop a world-class Australian sparkling wine. Their 1998 bottle, released in 2002, was the first sparkling wine ever made from 100% Tasmanian fruit.

“[Tasmania] is a beautiful place,” says Ed. “Being an island, the maritime climate influence is so strong. It’s new. It’s pristine. And it has a positive winemaking culture. Tasmania wants to be the cutting edge of global cold-climate styles.”

Global success

Today Ed is Group Sparkling Winemaker for Accolade Wines Australia (formerly Hardys) and House of Arras is Australia’s most awarded producer of sparkling wines. That’s largely thanks to Ed’s determination to do things differently. At a time when Australian sparkling wines were drunk young and fresh, he saw the benefits of ageing on lees (leftover yeast particles) in the bottle. This adds subtlety of flavour and builds complexity and depth, taking the wines to a new level.

Ed has played a major role in turning Australia into a serious producer of top-quality sparkling and putting Tasmania on the wine map. Arras wines have won more than 80 trophies and well over 200 gold medals and Ed has been named winemaker of the year twice. In 2015, House of Arras was awarded Best Sparkling Wine at the prestigious International Wine and Spirits Competition in London. The accolades haven’t stopped. Ed received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2018 Champagne and Sparkling Wine World Championships, becoming the only non-Champagne winemaker to win it.

“It’s been a learning curve and we were hoping for success – but we didn’t expect this for the House of Arras,” says Ed. “It’s exceeded our wildest dreams ... the support, the quality, the endorsements – it’s been brilliant.”

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