Voyager Estate - Harvest News Feb 2011 (III)

Steve James updates us with news from our benchmark award winning Margaret River Estate. Despite the cyclones on the horizon, things seem to be looking promising.

"Fairly hectic in the winery at the moment as we are in the middle of harvesting our Sauvignon Blanc with our first harvest of Semillon due tonight. The weather has been warm to hot averaging around 32 degrees Celsius during the day, with very mild evenings. Unusually for Margaret River the humidity has been high, with our weather being heavily influenced by the presence of tropical cyclones well to our north - thankfully!The Sauvignon Blanc fruit has been very impressive, with plenty of lovely tropical fruit flavours such as passion fruit, lychee and melon, whilst the Semillon component of the blend is showing the classic citrus flavours we look for with excellent weight and intensity.

The Chardonnay is fermenting beautifully in barrel, and the early signs of an exceptional wine look very encouraging indeed. Our use of new wood on Chardonnay is down to around 30%, as our vineyard is maturing and we are gaining more texture and complexity from the grapes. I expect we will complete the Semillon fruit by early next week, and spend some time walking the vine rows tasting the Shiraz which is also ripening quickly. Early tannin development on the reds looks fantastic, which will give us the luxury of harvesting the fruit with the flavour profiles we look for.

Currently 32 degrees and I can hear the Indian Ocean calling for a late afternoon swim!

Cheers Steve James."

Voyager Estate - Harvest News Feb 2011 (II)

"Wednesday 16th February 2011

Our Chardonnay harvest commenced on the 9th February which is the second earliest start to harvest we have experienced. The earliest was 2007 which commenced one day earlier!. Interestingly the seasons are still quite different, with the current season being early due to a very warm and dry spring with mild to warm ripening conditions, as opposed to 2007 which was early due to a hot summer and autumn.

We have been hand harvesting every day and our final Chardonnay pick is scheduled for Saturday 19th Feb. Chardonnay is all hand harvested on our vineyard as we do not crush the fruit but use whole bunch pressing, which assists with the finer more elegant style of Chardonnay we make.

The conditions have been perfect with warm weather albeit slightly more humid than the last few seasons. The fruit is being harvested in excellent condition with very good fruit weight and concentration in the lemon, grapefruit and dried pear flavours we look for with fine natural acidity. The quality of the Chardonnay appears exceptional across all blocks.

The first of the Sauvignon Blanc will be coming off on Thursday evening. The fruit for this wine is machine harvested in the cool of night which helps to preserve the aromatics and fresh vibrant fruit flavours we look for with this style of wine. The flavours have just started to kick in and are showing the signs of fresh tropical fruits with just a hint of herbaceousness. The flavour profile window for this variety is very narrow and combined with the warm ,perfect ripening conditions, I suspect it will be a busy week.

Our vintage team have settled in well and we have representation from France and South Africa this year, so it has been great to compare notes with winemakers from other regions around the world.

Cheers,

Steve James."