Erl Happ's marketing philosophy has always been: "Make the best wine, the rest will take care of itself." So chasing down exposure from the press and critics, and gaining wine show accolades, hasn't exactly been high on the priority list.
Nevertheless, sometimes the press finds us; We've conceded that it's better to be featured in James Halliday's Companion than not to, and as our winemaker MarK Warren is very passionate about his job and being top of the field, entering some wines in to wine shows provides a good opportunity to taste them against the competition, and see where his work stands in the field on a vintage by vintage basis. So of course, from entries come medals. Whether it's good taste to show them off is an ongoing debate here at Happs, of which we tend to lean on the modest side.
There are also some other factors that govern our show entries: As a boutique producer with 35+ wine styles on our list, many of these aren't produced in large enough volumes to qualify for show entry. Some styles are in such a class of their own there there would be nowhere to enter them if we desired to. And some varieties are so rare and distinguished in their own right that they simply don't fit in general categories alongside the run-of-the-mill Cabernets, Merlots, Chardonnay's etc.
As a rule of thumb, each year we'll enter into the major national shows: Three Hills Charles Andreas, Three Hills Merlot, Three Hills Shiraz, and maybe a few others...
The most recent awards are below.
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