The early Australian Happs:
ˇ
Christoph Charles Happ
ˇ
Andreas Franz Happ
ˇ
Maria Eva Iffland
ˇ
Amelia Smidth
ˇ
Sarah Ann Stearn
Christoph Charles Happ, my great
grandfather, arrived in Sydney in 1851
following his older brother Andreas
Franz who had made the passage in 1850.
Andreas came in the Ship 'Australia'. At
21 years of age he had married the 14
year old Amelia Smidth en-voyage. She
was pregnant. The ships captain
officiated. On arrival they went to the
Victorian goldfields. Soon after, she
disappeared from view. The goldfields
were turbulent and difficult places for
a young mother. It is unlikely that
Andreas spent much time in Victoria.
Many gold seekers moved on to places
like Bathurst in New South Wales when a
rush developed there.
Maria Eva Iffland had migrated from the
same village, Eltville, in the German
Rheingau on the banks of the Rhine where
the hills rising to the north are
completely planted to vines. She came
with her parents in 1849 arriving in
Australia at the age of 14. Christoph
Charles Happ, also a native of Eltville,
reportedly came to Australia with an
ambition to marry her. He arrived in the
'Balmoral' in 1851. The courtship seems
lengthy by the standard of his older
brother. There was the long separation
after she left Germany and then a three
year courtship in Sydney. Christoph
Charles married Maria Eva in Parramatta
only in 1854. She was 19 years old at
the time which probably explains the
delay. Charles, as he became known, was
23.
Charles settled down, first as a
pastrycook, his fathers profession, then
a grocer. He spent the rest of his life
in Newtown, Sydney, dying at the age of
64 in 1890. Maria Eva lived on till 1916
and died in a house called 'Eltville' in
Carrington St. Concord, Sydney, at the
age of 81. Three of Charles grandsons in
my father's generation were also
grocers. Back in Eltville the family
that was left behind continued to run
‘Kaffe Happ’. However, they ran out of
males and the café is now belongs to
others.
In Eltville, Kaffe Happ is within a
stones throw of the bishop's palace, a
medieval castle that has a nice position
overlooking the Rhine river. The bishop
gave permission there for Gutenburg to
set up his printing press to print the
first bible and the Bishops palace that
dominates the Eltville skyline is today
a museum devoted to Gutenberg. I have a
fine photo of a stained glass window
carrying Gutenbergs image that I took
while climbing the stairs of the bishops
tower a few years ago on my one and only
visit to Eltville. It is reproduced at
our cellar door.
Eltville and its neighbouring village
Geisenheim are wine villages in a the
famous Rheingau. The latter houses a
famous institute devoted to research on
wine and vines.
When Andreas Franz arrived in Australia
he stated his profession as cooper and
vine-dresser. He married a second time
to Sarah Ann Stearn of Cambridgeshire
England and together they raised a large
family in a place called 'Alloway Bank'
in Bathurst.
My grandfather, the third son of
Christoph Charles was called Charles
Leopold. He was born in 1868, the sixth
child of Charles and Maria Eva. The
second child of the family had been
called Charles too. He was styled
Charles Andrew. There have been lots of
Charles and Andrews over the generations
in the Happ family but two children
called Charles is rather exceptional.
Charles Leopold came to WA from Sydney
in the 1890s when Western Australia had
it's gold rush and the population of the
state tripled in just ten years. In 1898
he married Ellen Gallagher, a girl born
in Perth to Irish parents in 1863, her
mother having arrived in Western
Australia in 1857. Ellen was known to us
kids as little fat Nan. She had been a
proof reader employed by West Australian
Newspapers and was a stickler for
grammar and spelling. Charles and Ellen
lived in East Perth before moving to
Bassendean and a house very close to the
Swan districts football oval. Charles
Leopold was a painter and decorator in
the Western Australian Government
Railway workshops at Midland, a reserved
and gentlemanly fellow of sober habits,
a dab hand at elaborate decoration on
railway carriages which was his
occupation. I never knew him. Little Fat
Nan outlived him by many years, spending
the last years of her life with her
bachelor son George in Balingup. The
three Happ boys of my father's
generation were shopkeepers in Balingup
and Nannup and were well known in the
South West. Two were men of sober and
industrious habits. My own father, a
gregarious fellow, handicapped perhaps
by his experiences in the depression of
the thirties loved cricket, horses,
cards, a good story and a good time.
Perhaps, a portion of the genes of
Andreas came through in Dad.
The name Charles Andreas commemorates
the brothers, uncles and grandfathers
Happ, lots of them. It is a pity, I
think, that we have so little
information about them.
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A vineyard
designed for vines. |
Three
Hills Charles Andreas
With this wine we have set out to
provide a blend of the varieties
Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet
Franc, Malbec and Petit Verdot with the
simple aim of presenting a harmonious
and complex blend from our Bordeaux
varieties. The components are vinified
and matured separately and assembled
after a year of maturation in wood.
There is no formula for it's
composition. We assemble it from the
best and most complementary wines of the
vintage.
It has been a delight to discover
that the Three Hills fruit has such
strength of character that it is
complemented by maturation in small new
wood. In recent years we have been
purchasing exclusively barriques from
French coopers and are well pleased with
the way in which the wine can benefit
from the extra breathing that this wood
allows. Reductive aromatics disappear
soon after ferment and the wine builds
via contact with yeast and solids in the
early months. This does not happen in
quite the same way in larger wood.
Herbaceous flavours play a relatively
minor role in fruit from Three Hills
despite the cooler ripening temperatures
in mid to late April. This is due in
part to the fact that the vines do not
get the bums rush in the final stages of
ripening that occurs in warmer climes
and also perhaps the open and spacious
canopy, but more the former than the
latter. Recently I have placed more
emphasis upon ensuring that the berries
are fully mature at picking. The
indicator is the colour of the seeds,
which should be fully brown. At the
right time, many of the leaves are also
changing colour. They will not do this
unless they are starved of moisture and
nutrient from mid February. Recent
research in Bordeaux suggests that the
presence of green leaves around the
fruit, and rainfall or irrigation to
keep them green is a potent source of
the methoxypyrazine flavours that
accompany the green flavours that I
abhor.
The tannins that one sees in the new
wines are in part a product of fruit
exposure from ultra low-density
canopies. Along with the tannins we have
massive colour. We have noticed that the
tannins, quite as obvious in our white
wines as the reds, are very agreeable
when one eats and drinks at the same
time, and they do soften in time.
Tannins are potent preservatives and
enable wines to prosper with age.
Wines that get long skin contact at
elevated temperatures during
fermentation are sleepers in their early
years in barrel and bottle. One expects
the wine to begin to blossom at three to
four years of age. We assist in the
process by allowing a year in wood and
at least a years bottle development
prior to release. We strongly advise you
to give the wine plenty of air on
opening. Double decant and allow the
wine at least a couple of hours before
serving. It will be at it’s best in 24
hours and will grow in the glass.
The wines:
1999 Three Hills Charles Andreas.
The
Penguin Good Australian Wine guide
listed the first release Three Hills
Charles Andreas 1999 at
4.5 stars
(“A
Marvellous wine that is so close to the
top it almost doesn’t matter”). “This
is a dense, slightly closed wine which
is saying ‘go away and leave me alone
for the moment. It has sweet berry
flavours hidden deep within, and the
substantial tannins hint at extended
skin maceration and are quite formidable
on the finish. It needs cellaring; then
serve it with barbecued kangaroo
fillets”.
Robert Parkers
review of the 1999 Three Hills Charles
Andreas September 2003:
THREE HILLS 1999 CHARLES ANDREAS
PROPRIETARY RED MARGARET RIVER (US $28)
RED
91+A
brilliant Bordeaux-styled red from
Western Australia, this blend of
Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Cabernet
Franc was aged in French oak puncheons
for 20 months prior to bottling. It
could easily pass for a top class
Bordeaux. Complex aromatics of cedar,
spice box, black currants, and vanilla
followed by a layered, medium to full
bodied red with noticeable tannin as
well as a concentrated finish. It is a
graceful, concentrated dead ringer for a
Medoc. Consume it over the next 10-15
years.
James Halliday Feb 20th 2002
Rating
92/100:
Dense
purple-red; a rich, dense bouquet with
sweet berry, blackcurrant and cassis,
the palate adding chocolate to the mix,
offset by quite long savoury tannins. A
blend of Cabernet Sauvignon (50
percent), Merlot and Cabernet Franc (in
equal proportions).
Winefront Monthly:
Thick and dense and not at all
herbaceous, this is big tight wine built
for the serious haul. There’s a lot of
charry, savoury oak (probably too much)
but the strength of the fruit flavours
lying beneath – sour-cherry, bitumen,
blackberry – is quite phenomenal. It’s
seriously tannic too – but ripe, grapey
tannins – and judging by
the time in the decanter it took to get
it to prance and dance, drinking this
Bordeaux blend now is to see it nowhere
near its best. Drink: 2005-2015.
91 points.
2000 Never released.
Released as Happs Cabernets.
2001 Never released.
Released as Happs Cabernets. James
Halliday 92 Points. Quite rich, an
amalgam of black fruits, chocolate and
sweet earth; medium to full bodied; good
tannins. Drink 2014
2002Three Hills Charles Andreas:
Composition Cabernet Sauvignon 92%
Malbec 4% and 4% Merlot.
Trophy
for Best Cabernet Sauvignon from the
2002 and 2003 vintages at Qantas Mount
Barker Western Australian Wine Show
James Halliday Australian Wine Companion
favoured the Three Hills Shiraz over
the Charles Andreas awarding the 1992
and 1993 vintages 5 Goblets with 95 and
94 points respectively. The Charles
Andreas 2002 was awarded 4.5 Goblets and
93 points
and was reviewed in these words: Very
fine, elegant and savoury; long in the
mouth; not the typical show style at
all. Drink 2012
‘Winestate’ magazine September 2005
Cabernet Sauvignon and Blends
review.
405 wines were rated
by three distinguished South Australian
winemakers Tillbrook (Wynns), Mosches
(Petaluma) and Hazelgrove (Tinlins).
Winestate uses a rating system from
three to five stars with five stars
equating to ‘outstanding’, ‘Gold Medal’
or 93-100 points. Winestate believes
that a points system indicates a degree
of accuracy that does not exist.
Winestate states that the Cabernet class
was the best judged all year. The Shiraz
class was judged the month prior. The
wines earning
five stars
in each price category were:
Under $10: Nil
$15 to $20: Nil
$20 to $25: Nil
$20 to $25: Saltram Mamre Brook
2003 $22, Lake Breeze 2002 $22,
Flints Gammon Crossing 2003 $23.
$20to $25:Blanche Point 2001 $25
$25 to $30: Nil
$35 to $40:
Three Hills Charles Andreas 2002
$36, Orlando St Hugo 2001
$39, Howard Park Leston $35
$40 to $50: Wolf Blass Grey Label
2003 $45
$50 to $60: Devils Lair 2001 $58,
Bird in Hand 2003 $50
$60 to $70: Vasse Felix Heytsbury
2001 $65
$70 to $80: Nil
$80 Plus: Reshke Empyrean 1998
$115, Elderton Ashmead 2002 $85
The Three Hills Charles Andreas 2002
was reviewed in these words:
Pleasant head-full of light raspberry
aromas with slight green bean notes
underscored by a eucalypt character. A
touch oaky on the palate, but plenty of
intense ripe berry flavours to balance.
Winestate Annual Review
to be released January – February 2006
In the taste off of four to five star
wines for the best Cabernet for the year
Three Hills Charles Andreas 2002
was pointed fourth of the top five wines
that also included, the following wines:
Vasse Felix Heytsbury
2001 was awarded the Hambug Sud trophy
for the best wine of all classes tasted
during the year.
Saltram of Barossa
Mamre Brook Barossa Cabernet Sauvignon
2003
Flint’s of Coonawarra
Gammon’s Crossing Coonawarra Cabernet
Sauvignon 2003
Clairault Estate Margaret River
Cabernet Sauvignon 2002
It is notable that three of the top five
wines came from Margaret River, one from
Coonawarra and one from the Barossa.
This is a generous effort from three
South Australian based winemaker/
judges.
The description in Winestate’s Annual
review release of January 2005 went like
this:
This has started to evolve bottle-aged
complexity, giving it some Bordeaux-like
traits that will please those with a
taste for the classic wine style. The
bouquet has touches of mint, mulberry,
plums, earth, black olives and
undertones of cedary oak. The flavours
are still primary, rich plum and black
berries. A Cabernet backbone gives the
wine power of fruit. It’s full bodied
and long flavoured with fine tannins.
In the pipeline:
2003 Three Hills Charles Andreas
Composition: 39% Malbec, 33% Merlot, 17%
Cabernet franc and 11% Cabernet
sauvignon
Gold Medal
Qantas Mount Barker Show in the Red
Blends class.
2004 Three Hills Charles Andreas
Composition: 41% Cabernet Sauvignon 20%
Cabernet Franc 18% Malbec, 15% Merlot,
6% Petit Verdot.
As yet no Golds
Silver Mount Barker 2005
Silver Margaret River 2005
"its only a matter of time"
Erland Happ January 2006
