Welcome to the Happs and Three Hills blog. This is where we publish our ongoing thoughts on everything about wine and the marvelous Margaret River wine region.
What’s green, what’s ripe and the difficult business of finding a wine to please your guests
The colour of the pulp next to the seed tells a winemaker a lot about the wine that is to come. So, it pays to walk into the vineyard as picking time approaches and taste the fruit. Long before the berries are ripe enough to make good wine the seeds are capable of sprouting to produce a seedling vine. But the pulp surrounding the seeds may actually be really immature.
Check the photo above. The pulp to the right is obviously green in colour. The green is chlorophyll. Let’s say you are interested in assessing the seed colour. Many wine makers think it’s a good index of maturity. When you try to separate seed and pulp in the mouth the green snotty stuff will get in the way. It is relatively firm and still well attached to the seed. The effort involved in detaching it soon abrades the tongue. But there is something else that you notice in the process. The pulp has a hard green taste. Many people think that this hard green taste is the taste of Cabernet Sauvignon. Wrong. It is the taste of green Cabernet Sauvignon. One mouthful of a hard green wine, and if you are like me, you have had enough. It’s not ‘green tannin’. It’s something else entirely.
If you are walking down a vine row and tasting berries as you go, looking at the seeds, it’s the green pulp that will get to you first. You might be scoring the seeds according to their colour like this
- Brown
- Green brown
- Pale green
- Bottle green
But it won’t be long before you will realise that you can guess the colour from the taste of the pulp.
I hate green flavours and if it’s there that’s the thing that I will notice first. I find that the extent of green flavour is a good index of drinkability.
I have what might be called a ‘soft palate’. I don’t like high acid wines. I don’t like green wines. But that does not mean I don’t like tannin.
I find that you cannot really see the pleasant flavours in a wine if it’s acid or green.
As soon as you are eating food the perception of tannin disappears. The saliva in your mouth is full of protein and it binds up the tannins. When you are eating the saliva flows freely, so the wine tastes less tannic. You see flavours in the wine that are not apparent when the saliva is flowing less freely.
People often note that wine tastes different after they clean their teeth. Why? Because they have washed the saliva out of their mouth.
We all taste differently. Why? Because our salivary flow is different.
The type of food affects the taste of the wine? Why. Because different foods elicit a different salivary response.
If you want to enjoy a red wine have it with a simple stir fry with white rice. The rice gets the saliva flowing nicely.
If you want to know whether your dinner party guest is going to enjoy a red wine test them with a kiss. If the lips are wet and there is plenty of ‘slip’ chances are that they will go for the Nebbiolo. If their lips are dry better offer a white.
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Happs wins two trophies at the Perth Royal Wine Show 2011
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The Perth Royal Wine Show judges filed their results at the end of last week. When the tallies came in, Happs 2010 Cabernet Sauvignon was awarded the trophy for 'Best Cabernet Sauvignon' of vintages 2008, 2009, 2010 and commercial classes nationally. It was also awarded the trophy for the Best W.A. Dry Red Table Wine. Our 2007 Three Hills Merlot topped the Merlot class but only silvers were awarded. Both Happs and Three Hills Chardonnay were also awarded silver medals, and across our range there were several bronzes. See the end of this post for the trophy details and prior winners. As a follow up to being the Most Successful Exhibitor in both the open and under 300 tone production class last year, you could say we're happy with the results. This wine has just been bottled and would not normally be released for a year. Obviously there are enthusiasts keen to get their hands on it. As one of our valued subscribers we'll send you a mail next week detailing how you can reserve yours. Meanwhile you can find the 2009 Happs Cabernet here.
The cabernet for both the Happs and the Three Hills label is grown at our Three Hills estate in Karridale. To some it comes as a surprise that our cabernet ripens so well this far south of Margaret River. If one uses standard practices in the cool moist environment of Karridale, Cabernet is tainted with green flavours even though the fruit may be picked in late April or May. 'Standard practice' means mechanical harvest with narrow vertical canopies utilizing catch wires to keep the shoots erect. It also involves irrigation to keep the leaves healthy. This looks neat and green. We are different in both respects. We like to see the leaves go orange before we harvest. Our shoots and leaves occupy almost the entire row. Under the vines there is thick disorderly mulch. Thirty or forty pickers toil for five hours to bring in twenty to thirty tons in a day. We hand prune the vines and hand thin to restrict the crop. Sometimes it pays to be old fashioned. The leaves need light and bunches need space. Vintage 2010 was a tough year with lots of rain leading up to harvest putting pressure on people to pick early. Our wide canopy with well dispersed shoots and leaves dries out swiftly enabling us to hang on to the crop until it is fully ripe. The Three Hills vineyard is an interesting place. When we were showing 2002 wines we took out the top gold in the Cabernet, Shiraz and Merlot classes in the same year. This vineyard is an enigma. Ripe, full flavored wines come from a cool, damp environment. It has often been observed that very good wines come from environments that may be considered marginal and difficult. We'd like to thank the excellent team in both the vineyard and the winery. Our winemaker Mark Warren loves what he does, and Andy Coventry at Karridale leads a big team very well. Does Margaret River produce the best Cabernet around? When I was a lad the best Cabernets came from Coonawarra in South Australia. However, when the Margaret River region was being established growers were excited by John Gladstone's statement that Margaret River had the climate that is 'typical of Bordeaux in a great year'. That's a big promise. Today, Margaret River Cabernet Sauvignon is definitely the best in Australia and perhaps second only to Bordeaux internationally.
Oh, by the way, our flagship reds are the Three Hills Charles Andreas, Shiraz, Merlot Nebbiolo and Grenache. We don't do a straight Cabernet Sauvignon under the Three Hills label. Cheers, Award Details:
THE WINE SOCIETY TROPHY THE WITCH'S CAULDRON TROPHY |
James Halliday awards Happs 5 red stars
The 2012 edition of James Halliday's 'Australian Wine Companion' arrived last month. Happs was awarded 5 red stars 
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This translates to "an outstanding winery regularly producing wines of exemplary quality and typicity." Five red stars is awarded to producers that have at least two wines achieving a five glass rating (we had five wines at this level) in each of the last three years. This puts us in Halliday's top 5%
Well, we were the top West Australian exhibitor at the 2010 Perth show. Where does that place us?
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