Intro by Ros Happ

What makes Erl Happ tick? What makes him spend the weekends and evenings poring over data and graphs? What drives him to take the gamble and invest thousands of dollars on temperature reading equipment? Why does he scrutinize all the technical magazines, even in bed!

The answer is simple, he is a man of passion ... and that's why I married him! It can drive me mad ... but it has also driven me towards a love of philosophy. I've learnt to accept his passions and the noble and disciplined way he pursues them. He really wants to see people planting varieties that best suit the location they have. He has always felt that our knowledge is limited. Hence, his research has taken two major directions. Firstly, he has gathered original temperature data from 15 locations in Western Australia, and compared it with data from France, USA and New Zealand. He has used the data to look at ripening conditions in the month prior to harvest. Secondly, he is aware that colour and flavour are very much affected by fruit exposure. Trellising is therefore of vital importance and he has developed some radical new forms that have unique advantages.

I hope you enjoy these articles. If you feel somewhat daunted by their length and scope, you are not the only one! I have been promising myself that I will summarize their content for those of you who are not quite so driven as Erl. Please visit the web site again some time in the future, and I might have actually done it. I may need some encouragement. I am the one who studied science at university whilst Erl studied economics and the humanities. We seem to have reversed our interests over time!

Overview by Erl Happ

This story begins with the observations of Cullity, a surgeon form Perth who was the first man to plant grapes in Margaret River.

Cullity was influenced by the ideas of Harold Olmo who in 1955 recommended that vines for wine production be planted in Mount Barker. In 1965 John Gladstones compared the climate of the South West with that in Bordeaux. Bill Jamieson from Agriculture WA and Jack Mann, winemaker at Houghtons preached that the highest possible quality in table wine would be achieved "in cooler areas than the Swan Valley". He was aware of the assertion of the respected winemaker Maurice O’Shea, of the Hunter Valley, who had never been to Western Australia, that Albany would make premium wine. Later, on the basis of his own experience, Cullity had this to say.

"My guess is that the unclouded sky is more significant than was realised and that south of Margaret River more cloudy conditions, causing lower vine temperature amongst other things, should lead to longer and slower ripening and more elegant wine."

So Cullity went to Margaret River in search of elegant wine. Before he had produced his first wine others were in hot pursuit - like Bill Pannel (Moss Wood), the Cullen family, the Horgans at Leeuwin, and David Hohnen at Cape Mentelle. All these producers established their vineyards north of Witchcliffe, a hamlet some 8Km south of Margaret River townsite. This pattern has continued despite Cullity’s recommendation of the cloudy country to the south, with planting being concentrated between Witchclife and Cape Naturalist well into the late 1990's.

How Karridale compares on global standards
The bulk of Australia gets very hot in the months of February, March and April when vines mature their fruit. Few Australian viticultural environments have the protection from hot winds that parts of Europe enjoy by the combination of the Mediterranean Sea, the Pyrenees and the European Alps. Albany at 35 degrees south is slightly closer to the equator than Gibraltar at 36 degrees north. On first sight therefore, one might expect the wines of the South West to have more in common with those of Algeria than Montpellier, Avignon, Bordeaux or Dijon. However, the South West of Western Australia gets first use of Indian Ocean air as it moves west to East and is less troubled by damaging heat events than all points to the east.

If one searches the continent for the best climates to conserve flavour, it is the cloudy regions in the extreme southwest around Augusta and Karridale that offer the best environments. In the extreme South of Western Australia the autumn months of March and April are fine and balmy, and the winds in the main gently off the sea, as the continent gradually cools. The low-pressure systems that bring the winter rain are still coursing the southern ocean well to the south. Any rain originating in cyclone activity of the tropics tends to sweep inland to the east leaving the vines to mature their fruit free of misadventure.

Here the vine produces all its foliage by mid January. Growth then ceases and the fruit readily accumulates sugar to mature the fruit between March and April. A long growing season and an absence of heat in autumn yields favourable conditions to ripen equally the very early varieties and the very late i.e. Pinot Noir through to Cabernet Sauvignon and Mourvedre, with a fine chance of producing exceptional wine across the board. This is highly unusual in the world of viticulture. In higher latitudes one must match a variety to growing season and ripening time in order to escape unwanted heat while avoiding the onset of winter that will curtail sugar accumulation. Inevitably, seasons are more variable at higher latitudes.

In Karridale, Cullity’s cloudy south, overnight humidity is 100%, falling to perhaps 55% at midday. It is rare for daytime temperatures to exceed 24 degrees Centigrade. The fruit slowly ripens while retaining in greater concentration the array of flavours possible in any given grape variety. In the Australian context, this is unusual.

Tom Cullity’s observations have thus been confirmed in climatic studies by John Gladstones and more recently by Erl Happ (see articles).