Winemaker's Series: Voyager Estate

Isn't it amazing how the weeks fly by? Below is another fascinating update from Steve James at Voyager Estate, seemingly enjoying fine harvest conditions, and the odd good supper too....


"Thursday 25th February 2010

Warm temperatures around 30 degrees celcius and mild nights have really sped up the ripening, and we are well into our Chardonnay harvest and just about to start on some Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon. We have hand harvested approximately 70% of our Chardonnay fruit with the remainder coming in over the next few days. Flavours are developing at quite low sugar levels and 2010 is one of those years where it is very important to spend a lot of time tasting fruit in the vineyard and not worrying too much about technical analysis as the basis for harvest decisions.

We are very excited with the quality of fruit we have in so far, with fine elegant flavours in the fruit spectrums we look for. Several blocks of our Chardonnay have already gone to barrel and are fermenting nicely.

We will be machine harvesting our first pick of Sauvignon Blanc tonight and, we are very happy with the fruit flavours, intensity and balance that we are seeing on the vine. The first harvest of Semillon will be tomorrow night as we like to get an early pick of Semillon with some nice fresh grassy/lemon/lime notes in the fruit for our Sauvignon Blanc Semillon blend.

A few of us are having dinner at Voyager estate this evening with a travelling group of winemakers from Bordeaux - so it should be a great opportunity amongst the intensity of vintage to relax and drink a few fine wines with some great food and enjoy some friendly banter!"

Mosel Harvest 2009 "Filigree wines"

Mother Nature was on our side in 2009 and blessed us with a wonderful vintage.

After a very cold winter with temperatures as low as -18°C/-0.4°F, the warm and sunny weather of early spring was welcome. It encouraged vegetation and bode well for early blossoming. Although blossoming was actually delayed by cool, damp weather in late May/early June, and it proceeded somewhat slower and more unevenly than originally anticipated, the clusters that developed thereafter were fantastic: small, loose and intensely aromatic.

Summer remained very rainy until August, when friendlier skies reappeared.
In September, sunny and dry weather with cool nights and moderately warm days enabled the grapes to continue developing on the vine calmly and without complications.

Weather permitting, our grapes typically enjoy a very long ripening period – and so it was in 2009. We began harvesting on 13 October. The weather remained stable so that we could take our time to carefully select desirable bunches and bring in the crop in several stages.

Absolutely healthy grapes are essential for producing dry wines with outstanding potential. A selective harvest of ripe, healthy grapes/bunches attacked by noble rot yielded wonderfully fruity wines. In all, our vintage 2009 portfolio will include: juicy, racy “Gutsrieslinge” (our basic estate Rieslings); exceptionally compact Kabinett wines with a fine, fruity acidity; mineral-rich Spätlese and Auslese; and lusciously sweet Beeren- and Trockenbeerenauslese. All will offer great drinking pleasure and have great aging potential.

Once again, we have been able to put together a collection of filigree wines that unite the finest fruity aromas with the slaty mineral notes typical of Brauneberg.

We hope you will truly enjoy tasting the new wines of vintage 2009.

The Haag Family

Spain's greatest white?

First it's Voyager Shiraz beating Grange in the points rankings. Now it's another agency of ours, the much loved but little known Ossian (from one half of the team that make Aalto) making headlines. It's been given the lofty accolade of best white in Spain by the country's most popular wine website. The very best white wine in the whole country. And it's cheaper than most village level Burgundy....

And although we sold out long ago, the murmurs from the buying team seem to suggest we've managed to secure a secondary parcel....which doubtless won't last long.....