Happ-enings
Summer 99
Written by Roslyn Happ

Christmas time - time for everything to happen all at once! No time to even check your email. You’re probably reading this on Christmas day! Whatever the day, whichever the place, we hope you’re having a most enjoyable Christmas season.

We had a wonderful staff party on ‘The Willy’, a pearl lugger which gives pleasure rides from Meelup. It was the afternoon before the big thunderstorms and Meelup was not its usual friendly self. Even Erl’s mother, Eunice, braved the waves to climb into the dinghy – one of those wet bottom rides! Erl couldn’t help taking the helm and before long he had found the best patch of wind in the bay and we were hurtling along - our queasy stomachs eased by the excitement of a ‘real sail.’

NEW WINES – NEW LABELS
‘You can please some of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time.’

This was obvious when I took up the challenge of coming up with a new colour range of labels for our white wines. Two things made this urgent, one was the change of bottle colour from flint to French green, and the other was the development of three new white wines.

Some of you visited the cellar and participated in this choice by indicating which colours you preferred of the labels I had generated on the computer. I would like to thank all the participants and congratulate those whose names came up in the lucky draw.

A Three Pack of wines with new labels goes to B Heaton of Kardinya, WA.
A Bottle of Chenin Blanc to J Adkins of Buderim, Qld.
A T-shirt with the new labels to A Anderson of St Kilda, Vic.

The new label range has been an experiment. We think the print quality is excellent but the paper is scuffing more than we would like. Next vintage will see some refinements with perhaps a little brightening up of the colours and a matt varnish finish similar to the new one used on the PF Red. The colours finally chosen were further refined by our designer, Rick Lambert.

We will continue to value your opinion, so please let us know what you think. happs@happs.com.au

The new wines to look for are:
1999 PF White A preservative free unwooded Chardonnay. Already very popular. Extremely limited supply.
1999 Chenin Blanc Off dry, think of tree ripened apples, explosive with flavour.
1999 Late Picked Verdelho For all you Verdelho fans, this is a really good one. If you are unaccustomed to drinking sweet wines, give this one a try served very cold with a spicy curry, absolutely delicious.
1999 Semillon Verdelho is in a new outfit as well. Look out for it.

SEMILLON VERDELHO – PEOPLE’S CHOICE
The 1997 Semillon Verdelho won the ‘People’s Choice’ of Best White Wine at the Margaret River Show. So, if you’re a Semillon Verdelho fan, you’re amongst friends of good taste.

CONCERT – BOHINTA
A couple of hundred people had a great afternoon on Sunday, 7th November, drinking wine and kicking back to the contemporary Irish tunes of Martin and Aine Furey, accompanied by Greig Stewart on percussion. The harmonies of this brother and sister duo were particularly well balanced. Martin’s humour and the mythical nature of their Irish lyrics were delightful. Greig’s sensitive playing of the Irish tambor gave the whole performance a passionate and theatrical quality which swept one along with the mood of the song. And they loved the sun that shone the whole afternoon, particularly as they were heading back to the cold of Dublin the following week.

It was a great occasion to celebrate the release of the new whites. Jacquie Happ did a wonderful job of organizing this event while Erl and I holidayed with Erl’s brother on a yacht in the Whitsundays!

COMING EVENTS
January 16th South Perth Fiesta

January 30th Family ‘CODS’ afternoon at Happs – beginning at 4pm. The teams will mainly be coming from other wineries and wine related industries, but if you would like to join in with a team, let us know. (Cods is the Happs version of Petanque. We can provide you with a set of balls.)

February 12th ‘The Real Sing’ Concert at the Dunsborough Hall. This is an a cappella ensemble of 24 singers who present inspirational songs – contemporary, soul, blues, gospel and big band, conducted by Martin Meader, co-producer of the film, Paradise Road. There will be a singing workshop with Martin the following day. Please contact me, Roslyn Happ, if you would like to come.

February 26th Petanque Tournament. Held over the course of a weekend at several wineries. There will be participants come from metropolitan petanque clubs and interested locals.

FEBRUARY RELEASE OF ‘1998 MARRIMEE MARGARET RIVER WHITE’.
You may recall that in our first E Mail newsletter, written by Erl, we were doing some soul searching regarding the naming of this wine. However, our experience told us that its pronunciation is a problem and we felt that we needed to give a little more explanation on the bottle. Hence, we have added an ‘e’ which makes it Marrimee, and added the explanation on the front label ‘Margaret River White.’ We think it’s a winner. We’ve also dropped the price which makes you a winner! Erl and I had a bottle of 1998 Marrimee for my birthday with marinated Red Emperor, tossed salad with mint and coriander, and steamed baby potatoes. It was a really memorable meal. I’ve written a poem ready for the release of the ‘Marrimee Margaret River White’.

Happs Marrimee
Margaret River White
Majestic Marri
The Vigneron’s delight
Happs Marrimee
Margaret River White
Why not ask
And try it tonight!
I wanted to write, ‘Why not ask, tonight’s the night!’. But they wouldn’t let me.

We hope you too have some memorable occasions over Christmas with your favourite Happs wines and wish you all the very best for the New Year.

From all of us at Happs.