Voyager Estate - Harvest Update pt.7

Harvest Update – 1st March 2013 

It has certainly been a very busy couple of weeks with our white grape harvest completed on Wednesday evening.

The Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon harvest was completed in 8 days – a new record. The warm days and cool evenings have provided perfect ripening conditions which has resulted in several blocks ripening at the same time, necessitating a quicker harvest to ensure the fruit is picked in the optimal flavour window.

The Sauvignon Blanc has fresh and vibrant tropical fruit flavours of passionfruit, with some kiwifruit and lychee. The Semillon is in the citrus spectrum, with flavours of lemon and grapefruit. The early indicators are for an excellent example of this blend from the 2013 vintage, with plenty of fruit weight and intensity.

Chardonnay is fermenting away nicely in barrel and, again the potential looks great, with excellent fruit weight, concentration and flavour profiles.

Yields have been moderate, and from all reports, Sauvignon Blanc crops are down by 30% across the region.

I expect this trend will continue with the reds as the berries are very small, which will result in very high skin to juice ratios. Great for quality and concentration but not so good for our volumes!.

The early signs for the reds are extremely encouraging with our early tasting and sampling showing great flavour and tannin development at low sugar levels. I anticipate we will commence the red grape harvest next week with the first of our Shiraz fruit coming into the winery. It will be an exciting week as we commence the use of our new fruit sorting technology which, will ensure only pure berries and no leaf or petiole will find its way into the fermenters.

Fingers are crossed for a continuation of this beautiful weather, as the season is reminding me of 2001 which, delivered some of the best reds the region has seen.

Cheers,

Steve James