Arras Museum Release Blanc de Blancs 2006
- 97
- $500
- Drink by: 2025-2035
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Granted that much of the attention for this wine will focus on what surely must be a record price for an Australian sparkling wine, but that would be a shame as it is a truly special release. Seventeen years on lees, just 395 bottles are available. Dosage is meagre 1.5 grams per litre. Quite a stunning nose with notes of lemon cream, hazelnuts, fresh brioche, almonds and grapefruit, this is balanced, elegant, and offering amazing complexity. A wine of finesse with energy and focus, the intensity is maintained for the full journey. It is still extraordinarily youthful and I would defy anyone to pick the age of this wine if served blind. You would be lucky to get within a decade. An absolute masterpiece, which offers a thrilling future. Add this to your bucket list if you are serious about great Australian wine.
Ken was born and bred in Brisbane, Queensland. He had a non-trendy, perfectly happy childhood, in a family convinced alcohol meant instant condemnation to Hades. But a break fishing on the Great Barrier Reef, and some good wine, started a serious obsession that eventually took over. It did not stop Ken being chastised later for drinking Pol champagne, disgusted he’d drink anything made by a Cambodian dictator. Now, Ken mostly writes on wine, champagne and spirits for various newspapers, magazines and books, but is perhaps best known for his work in The Courier Mail. He also has a little sideline writing on cigars, fishing, travel and food. When not writing, fly-fishing for trout in NZ or bonefish on the flats of Cuba, travelling or smoking cigars, he is no doubt following a variety of sporting teams – the occasionally glorious Queensland Reds rugby, the dysfunctional Washington Redskins, the dodgy Arsenal and especially revels in the world restored to its proper axis with the return of the Ashes to their rightful home.
