Our first harvest of Chardonnay on the 3rd of February was the earliest start to harvest we have experienced at Voyager Estate.
The Chardonnay vines have been tracking early all season and the very quick flowering in November set the scene for a potentially early start to harvest.
The ripening weather has been warm to mild with no excessive heat and, the nights have been very cool – perfect conditions for the steady ripening of the white fruit.
If the pleasant mild conditions hold, we should see our Chardonnay fruit steadily harvested over the next 10 to 14 days. This nice steady ripening allows us the luxury of handpicking small select parcels at perfect levels of ripeness.
The early flavour development at very low sugar levels has been amazing and, the grapes are retaining excellent natural acidity.
The Chardonnay fruit is all handpicked and chilled down overnight before whole bunch pressing and is then transferred to barrel for fermentation.
Early days, however I cannot recall our team being more excited by the quality of fruit we are seeing at the moment!
