Saturday 10th April 2010 As usually seems to happen we have had a slower couple of weeks waiting for all of the Cabernet blocks to fully ripen and we are now down to our final couple of days harvesting tomorrow and Monday. The Cabernet Sauvignon has followed a similar pattern to the Shiraz with lovely ripe flavours and perfect tannin ripeness at lower than normal sugar levels. The fruit is showing wonderful freshness and vibrancy with classic southern Margaret River flavours of cassis, mulberries and ripe red berries. The tannins are fine and ripe and, an indicator of the overall fruit ripeness, has been the woody development of the grape stalks and seeds. I do not recall a vintage where we have had such dry, crunchy seeds and, beautiful ripeness of the grape stalks with dry brown wood extending all the way to the bottom of the bunch. The overall fruit quality looks outstanding with all blocks performing to a very high level giving us a lot of exceptional batches to select from when we assemble the top wine.
The whites have all completed fermentation with the Chardonnay now in barrel for the next 12 months, and the Sauvignon Blanc Semillon components slowly being blended together.
The vintage has been our fourth very high quality season in a row which underlines the consistency of the Margaret River region and reinforces my initial perception of the region as a viticulturists paradise!
Steve James, Voyager Estate
