Harvest report from Voyager Estate - Part two

We have nearly completed our Chardonnay harvest with only one small block remaining. The vineyard team have been steadily handpicking each morning for the past 10 days and, have brought in some of the most outstanding Chardonnay fruit we have ever seen. 

The flavor development and concentration at such low sugar levels has the team very excited by the potential quality of the harvest. The Chardonnay fruit is all hand harvested and whole bunch pressed, with the free run juice being transferred to French oak barrels for natural fermentation.

This season has seen the introduction of some larger format oak barrels in the form of puncheons which we are using on our Chardonnay and Shiraz. The 500 litre puncheons will offer us the textural benefits of barrel maturation with slightly less oak influence on the resultant wine.

We have commenced the fruit intake of Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon, with the first hand pick of Semillon completed this morning and some machine harvested fruit coming in this evening. This is the point where the vineyard and winery teams split into two shifts, as we begin working day and night  to harvest these varieties. The machine picking is done during the cool of the evening and early morning, to ensure these aromatic white varieties are at their freshest and most vibrant.

The weather conditions are close to perfect with a continuation of warm days and cool nights the norm for the week ahead.

It is certainly looking like one of the strongest white wine vintages for a long time -  I think some really special wines will be made!

Harvest report from Voyager Estate - Part one

Our first harvest of Chardonnay on the 3^rd 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!

Voyager Estate - The Final Harvest Update April 2011

The final instalment of Voyager Estate’s harvest report.

"Similar to last year - we had just finished tipping our last bin of Cabernet Sauvignon into the de-stemmer and the rain started to fall. The harvest which commenced on the 9th of Feb and concluded on the 6th of April will be remembered for the warm and humid February and the perfect March weather which finished the reds off beautifully.

It was a season where patience was rewarded, as it was important to wait for the Cabernet Sauvignon and give it some hang time to ensure the tannins were fully ripe. Those who waited will make outstanding wines, with great concentration and fine, ripe, silky tannins.

The condition of the vine canopies at harvest was the best I have ever seen, with no sign of yellow leaves due to some timely midsummer rain. However, the fruit still showed evidence of the dry growing season, with small, deeply coloured berries and thick skins. Consequently the yields were quite low and came in just under our targeted range at around one and a half tonnes per acre.

The excellent quality of the grapes will see the fruit from most of our best vineyards spend a couple of weeks left on skins after fermentation which contributes great complexity and tannin structure to the wine.
Most of the Shiraz vineyards have completed fermentation and are looking fantastic with rich dark and red berry fruit and fine, complex layered tannins.

We have just started blending our Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon which looks great and the Chardonnay is potentially exceptional. The consistency of this region never ceases to amaze me and it really does fit the description as a "viticulturist’s paradise".

Cheers, Steve James"

Voyager Estate - Harvest News March 2011

“This week has seen the completion of the Shiraz and Merlot fruit into the winery. The yields have been spot on our targets for these varieties at close to 2 tonnes per acre, and the fruit looks excellent with great colour and concentration.

The first picks of Cabernet Sauvignon have started to come in, and the early signs look very promising. The first Cabernet fruit we harvest is off a small block in the Wilyabrup sub region of Margaret River, which is located about 25 Kms north of our estate. It is slightly warmer and provides us with an exceptional batch of fruit we use in our Cabernet Sauvignon Merlot wine. The top fruit from this sub region is always characterised with lovely fresh Mulberry fruit and fine silky tannins whereas the fruit from our top Estate vineyard blocks displays dark cassis fruit with more structural tannins. The small portion of this Wilyabrup fruit adds some mid palate sweetness to the wine and is an important component of our style.

Next week is looking very busy with most of the Estate Cabernet being harvested. The weather is holding up beautifully with warm days and cool nights which are perfect for fully ripening the tannins and concentrating the flavours.

Cheers, Steve James”

Voyager Estate - Harvest News March 2011 (V)

Part five of Steve James’ Harvest Update as we follow the progress at Voyager Estate. The Shiraz is in, which leaves just Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Petit Verdot to be harvested...

"The warm tropical weather has finally subsided and we are now enjoying classic Margaret River autumn weather, comprising beautiful warm, sunny days with cool nights. Perfect conditions for finishing off the red grapes which we started harvesting on Tuesday 8th March. Most of the Shiraz has been harvested and is showing amazing depth of colour with great concentration of ripe fruit flavours and excellent tannin structure. Due to the kind weather conditions, we have been selectively harvesting small batches on most days, and will complete the Shiraz early next week.

The Merlot is nearly ready, and we expect to commence harvesting this early next week with the Cabernet Sauvignon not long after. Our final red grape harvested is Petit Verdot which we love to blend into our Cabernet Sauvignon Merlot for its violet like aromatics and structural contribution to the palate. The weather forecast for the next week or so is very good, so we will continue selective harvesting of small batches which enables us to harvest each small patch at optimum ripeness. The Chardonnay has nearly finished fermentation in barrel, and a tasting late last week showed our early excitement to be well justified. Hopefully the weather will hold out for another couple of weeks to give the Cabernet Sauvignon a bit more hang time to complete another outstanding vintage for the region.

Cheers, Steve James."

Voyager Estate - Harvest News March 2011 (IV)

Steve James making us feel as if we are walking along the vineyards with him, soaking in the sun and witnessing the last of the white grapes.

"It has been a busy week with all of our Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon harvested, which basically sees the end of the whites except for a small parcel of Viognier to be harvested with our early picks of Shiraz and co-fermented. The season has delivered excellent flavours for the Sauvignon Blanc Semillon blend with a very good palate weight and fruit intensity. The latter harvested batches of Semillon contribute a nice textural component to the wine.

Around 20% of the Semillon portion of this wine is being put to barrel for fermentation, with the aim of building more textural notes and complexity into the wine but without obvious wood character.

The reds are ripening quickly and we are currently spending a lot of time in the field chewing seeds and grape skins - waiting for the optimum tannin ripeness so we can begin the red grape harvest. It looks like we will commence the Shiraz early next week - they are very close but just need a few more days to finish off.

The weather is still warm and dry with slightly cooler conditions forecast for the weekend, which will be a pleasant relief for the vignerons and vines.

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."

Voyager Estate - Harvest News Feb 2011

On the other side of the world a country battles with pretty much everything mother nature can throw at it. Flooding, cyclones, and now bush fires (not to mention the England Test XI) have beset the Australian people in the past two months, demonstrating with relentless ease just what a wild and powerful force nature can prove to be.

Some hours south of the recent fires, in the Margaret River region of Western Australia, Steve James and his team are readying themselves for another harvest. Earlier than usual, though as yet untouched by the troubles elsewhere, he has once again agreed to keep us up to date with his progress through the vintage....

Monday 7th Feb 2011

Well - here we go again with another year gone and a new harvest imminent.

We had some nervous moments during the weekend of the 29th and 30th of January. A tropical cyclone was forecast to move down the coast south of Perth, cross the coast about 80 Kms north of Margaret River, and bring gale force winds and buckets of rain!!. Fortunately it hit cold water and fizzled out, resulting in no wind and only a couple of light showers.

Currently our Chardonnay is about 11 Baume with good acid and extremely good early flavour development.

After some sampling and technical analysis followed by a good walk and tasting in the field tomorrow, I suspect we will be commencing our Chardonnay harvest later in the week.

Similar to the 2007 vintage, we are facing a very early harvest. This has been brought about due to the warm and dry spring conditions which resulted in early vine flowering.

Interestingly, all the reds are fully through veraison and are ripening well.

Although an early season, the ripening conditions so far have been close to perfect, with warm weather and no heat spikes.

Fingers crossed the rain the eastern states are receiving stays away and the warm sun shines for another 8 weeks.

I will send an update sometime next week.

Cheers,

Steve James.

"Viticultural Paradise": An interview with Steve James

Having provided us with detailed harvest reports throughout February and March, and with all wines safely in the winery and beginning their elevage, Steve James joined us in London to taste a superb range of Voyager Wines. Hearing him talk about Margaret River it is hard not to be seduced by this remote corner of Australia. 3 hours south of Perth, green forests rolling down to the gravel hills and on to the white beaches, sea on three sides and a cooling breeze, good winter rainfall and a consistent, dry and warm late summer harvest period. It is a "viticultural paradise" with croups of well drained, red and brown gravel where each year the winemaking teams compete in a surf contest. It has a certain pull, does it not.

While here Steve organised a masterclass with some of London's top sommeliers, pitting Voyager's wines against the likes of Cos d'Estournel, Sassicaia, Moss Wood, Bonneau de Martray's Corton Charlemagne and Craggy Range Le Sol. Quite a line up. Quite a brave challenge. The results surprised the sommeliers, though not Steve who proved once again that at a fraction of the price his wines really can and do hold their own in exalted company.

Here we ask him how they do it:

Winemakers Series: Voyager Estate, the final installment

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

Winemaker's Series: Voyager Estate

Thursday 25th March 2010

It has been a busy week with all of our Shiraz now harvested. Due to the wonderful season and meticulous viticulture we have been able to harvest our Shiraz at lower sugar levels than normal and the resultant wines look sensational. I believe it is potentially the most impressive Shiraz that I have seen in my 12 years at Voyager Estate and, the aromatics, tannin ripeness and purity of fruit is truly exceptional. Some batches have already been pressed off and are waiting to go to barrel to soak up some of the lovely French oak.

We have also harvested most of our Merlot and some of the earlier picks of Cabernet Sauvignon. Again the nature of this excellent season has allowed harvesting of fruit with silky ripe tannins at lower Baume than normal, which I am sure will result in elegant wines with wonderful aromatics and classical varietal expression.

The weather has cooled off slightly and, we are getting mild days with no sign of any significant rain in sight - perfect conditions for finishing off the remaining blocks of Cabernet Sauvignon. Cabernet loves the milder weather and slower ripening at the end of the season to develop the concentration and tannin ripeness we look for.

We are all very happy and excited by the quality of what we are seeing and if the great weather continues we should be completed harvesting sometime during Easter.

Steve James, Voyager Estate

Winemaker's Series: Voyager Estate

Steve James' latest report is just in and things continue to look good for the Voyager harvest...

"Monday 15th March 2010

All of our white grapes have been harvested with our final white harvest of Chenin Blanc completed last Thursday evening. The Chardonnays are close to finishing fermentation and the Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon are ticking away nicely. It is always a great feeling to have the whites into the winery and safe from any of the impacts that nature can bring at this critical period. We are really happy and excited by the quality of the whites and I believe we will make some outstanding wines - particularly Chardonnay which looks exceptional.The first of our reds will be hand picked tomorrow morning with the eastern side of our Ullingers Block 2 Shiraz ready to go. The flavours in the reds look fantastic with lower than normal sugar levels and fine, physiologically ripe tannins. I suspect most of our Shiraz will be harvested by the end of this week and we should be starting Merlot and some Cabernet Sauvignon next week. Again - if the wonderful weather holds out we will be in for an exceptional red wine vintage. The slightly cooler conditions forecast for this week are great for slowly finishing the reds off."

Winemaker's Series: Voyager Estate

It's actually quite amazing when you think of the tightrope that viticulturists around the world have to tread. It's an extremely fine balancing act with Mother nature on one side and the techniques of the vine grower on the other. Green harvesting, leaf pruning, canopy management, debudding, vine density, not to mention the uncontrollables such as the weather. It's an extensive list. Get it right and you can start to change the fundamental building blocks of the grapes you crush; ripe phenolics, low sugars, and correspondingly low alcohols....get it wrong and the grapes natural development can become badly skewed with ripeness, sugar levels and flavour developments all arriving at different times....

Steve James gives us the third installment on their Margaret River harvest, where it would seem Voyager's building blocks are falling into place.

"Thursday 4th March 2010

A lot has happened in the past week - due mainly to the consistently warm to hot weather that the Margaret River region has experienced. Temperatures in the low thirty degrees Celsius with mild evenings has seen the grapes ripen very quickly. As mentioned in the last report, the flavours have been coming in at low sugar levels, so it has been critical to spend a lot of time in the vineyard tasting fruit and, not worrying too much about the technical analysis.

The past week has seen the completion of our Chardonnay intake and, most of our Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon harvested. Our final pick of Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon is tomorrow night and, that signals the end of the whites except for a small volume of Chenin Blanc and an even smaller component of Viognier which will be harvested to co-ferment with our first block of Shiraz.

Overall quality looks outstanding, with pristine clean fruit and bright vibrant flavours in the profiles we look for. Chardonnay looks exceptionally good and the barrel fermentations are ticking along beautifully.

We are currently enjoying a cooler spell of weather , however with warming conditions forecast from the weekend on, the reds will not be far away. Early indications are for a potentially exceptional red year with, early flavour development and tannin ripeness looking very impressive. I expect by late next week we will be thinking about our first harvest of Shiraz for the vintage. Hopefully the season will allow us to harvest some reds at lower sugar levels with ripe flavours and tannins - a goal we have been working towards with our viticulture for a few years now.

At this stage it is looking like a very compressed vintage with parallels to the 2001 and 2007 seasons, where vintage was mostly completed by the end of March. "

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!"

Winemaker's Series: Voyager Estate

Continuing our series of harvest reports from the new world comes news from the Margaret River. Steve James is the Goliath beating winemaker at Voyager Estate and has this on their 2010 harvest.

"Thursday 18th February

Our 2010 harvest will commence tomorrow morning with the first of our Chardonnay blocks. This is our Voyager Block 10 which is planted to Clone 95 Chardonnay and is traditionally our first harvest.

The Margaret River region is currently experiencing magnificent ripening conditions with warm temperatures averaging around 26 degrees Celsius, mild nights and no rainfall.
The early signs are very exciting with outstanding early flavour development and the Chardonnay is showing that lovely tight grapefruit and dried pear flavours we look for at low Baume's and with perfect levels of natural acidity.

Sauvignon Blanc is also developing flavour with great intensity and I expect we will begin harvesting this mid to late next week. Very happy at this stage and keeping our fingers crossed that this perfect weather continues...."

David and Goliath...

Well not exactly.Voyager Estate's Shiraz 2007 didn't find itself pitted, one on one, slingshot in hand directly against the iconic Penfolds Grange, but it might as well have been. There has been much publicised in Australia about the little WA Shiraz that has scored higher than the most recent release of Australias "First Shiraz" the first growth priced Grange, but little over here.

The scores come from the highly respected Penguin 2010 Good Australian Wine Guide and see Voyager's 2007 Shiraz gleaning 96 points while 2004 Grange picks up 94. There has been such a clamour for it down under that it's no longer available from any merchant or the Voyager cellar door.

Fortuntately our shipment arrived today, and guess what, at £65 per six bottles ib, we won't be giving any back.

Voyager Estate Cabernet Sauvignon Merlot

We've always said the wines from Voyager Estate were superb. Continued investment in time and energy by the dynamic winemaking team only means they are getting better and better. Old bottles seem to develop a Bordelais sense of gentle, handsome refinement, whilst in their youth the wines are crammed full of sensual fruit and well managed tannins.

And Neil Martin agrees with us. The following tasting notes, published on erobertparker.com, come from a Margaret River expo earlier in the year.

"2004 Voyager Estate Cabernet Sauvignon/Merlot 92
This is a great wine. A lovely, well-defined, sensuous bouquet with black plum, black pepper and a touch of antique snuff box coming through. Then mulberry developing with aeration. Ripe blackberry and plum on the palate laced with dried herbs, very Bordeaux-like with admirable harmony and focus. Elegant finish. Superb. Drink now-2018. Tasted May 2009."

"2001 Voyager Estate Cabernet Sauvignon/Merlot 92
Another great wine from Voyager. A ripe nose with mint and camphor, a touch of sous-bois and cigar box. Very Bordeaux-like once again. The palate is full-bodied, firm tannins, quite masculine and tannic with an austere, almost aloof finish that seems to laugh in your face that you remain so loyal to the Left Bank. Excellent. Drink now-2014. Tasted May 2009."