Clay time in Margaret River

Written By Angus Hughson

Words by Tony Love

The use of amphora vessels in winemaking has an emotive ring about it: what’s old is new again.

They come with an artisanal tradition attached, stretching back, it’s thought, more than 6000 years ago to the central European country of Georgia, where clay jar or vase like qvevri vessels were used to make, store and transport produce including grapes and wine, olives and grain.

Fast forward to a new generation of winemakers embracing the old ways as a path to more natural and unfettered expressions of their wines. Amphora are increasingly found in the vinification arsenal of winemakers of all creeds, large and small, progressive and conventional.

Originally they would have been made by their producers, or in their villages, using local clays for small and practical vessels. These days they can stretch into more commercial proportions, both in size and supply chains.

It’s a rarity that a vigneron even will have the skills to craft their own clay vessels, which is exactly what Margaret River winemaker Erl Happs has done with his 2023 vintage Revelation Malbec.

Sourced from his Karridale estate, Three Hills vineyard in the southern districts of the region, the Malbec was first fermented on skins in an open fermenter, settled in tank, then transferred to four 80-litre clay pots he crafted himself to age succinctly for nine months before bottling, unfined and unfiltered.

The wine’s story is the fulfillment of close to 50 years of Erl’s dual craftmanship, his two great loves of pottery and wine.  

He has been working with clay and earth since the 1970s, making mud bricks and eventually building a home in Dunsborough in 1978 where he and his wife Ros still live, followed by a winery, cellar door and his Commonage pottery studio, all of which make a lively centre of artistic creativity in the region.

His love of wine led him to buy a sheep property in Karridale in 1994 and plant there 30 different varieties, 20 red and 10 whites.

“Bear in mind that I’m a curious person,” Er says. “It was basically to see what would happen, what would give us the flavours we were after and what people would enjoy drinking.”

The first wine he made, a Cabernet, was fermented in a pottery vessel – there were in Erl’s summation, just 60 gallons (approx. 270 litres).

The latest release is with one of his favourite varieties, Malbec, and continues his marriage of both wine and pottery to achieve not only a wine style that he loves to drink, softer, approachable and early drinking, but also fulfilling his ongoing curiosity for all things creative.

“We did a test in a smaller vessel, about eight bottles worth, and we basically just watched it mature. It was a revelation because the wine was obviously expressing what the grape had, and so that led me to make the bigger vessels,” Erl says.

“But you would never set out to make wine in vessels of this size commercially, right? It was all about pursuing the idea. The interest is that it produces such a different product.”

What makes it a different wine to one matured in oak is certainly about the pots, made from commercially available clays to get the right baking result. Being slightly porous, allowing some breathing through the vessel, and with a size and shape that creates its own vinification environment inside, both with the depth of lees and their movement which could have a similar result to stirring, still remains a bit of a mystery to Erl.

What he does appreciate is the tannin structure and texture of the resultant wine has the smooth mouthfeel he loves to drink.

“Why this is so, I don’t know,” he says. “The proposition of making wine in clay was a classic suck it and see moment. I was sceptical at first, but now it’s well, we've got something here which is really quite unusual.

“It's not a commercial enterprise, but more a creative experience, the kind that can bring you great joy. And makes a wine that we love drinking.”

Happs Three Hills Revelation Malbec 2023

Margaret River   14.8%    $130

Sourced from the Happs estate Karridale Vineyard on southern Margaret River, where Malbec is a favourite among many other traditional and exotic varieties. Vinified quite traditionally to begin, before spending nine months in small clay vessels crafted by winemaker and potter Erl Happs. There’s a deep quiet to this wine, crushed crimson to blue berried aromas with a gentle poise, subtle spearmint and faint chocolate notes leading to a considered set of savoury dried herb elements that weave intricately with the fruit driven aspects which rise in the palate – juicy red plums a focus. It’s here the texture become the more important aspect of the wine, softly powder-puffing the whole mouth, yet open and sensitive to allow the flavours to stay in play for eons. Smooth. No jagged edges. To be drinking this as a complete experience at such a young age is a testament to the winemaking and perhaps the gentle encouragement of the clay. It’s definitely a statement that a wine with a quiet soul can be just as impressive as any much louder big gun. 94/100

Angus Hughson
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