Voyager Estate

It's a wrap for 2018 harvest

Following eight weeks of steady picking, the 2018 harvest was completed on April 7, when we hand harvested our Old Block Cabernet Sauvignon under fine sunny skies. The Cabernet Sauvignon fruit harvested this year has been of outstanding quality across all blocks; ripe, concentrated flavours and excellent dry, powdery tannins. The resultant wines are looking terrific and, I expect some of the batches will stay on skins post fermentation for a few weeks, as we look to build structure and longevity into the top wines. I’m quietly confident of it being a Tom Price year.

The organic blocks have fared extremely well this season, and we are thrilled with the quality of fruit which was harvested off these vineyards. We are currently rolling an additional one third of our vineyard area under the organic regime to bring the total area under full organic farming to 80 hectares.

The winery team have been pretty hectic this vintage as I think we are setting a new record for the highest number of different wines being made – last count had us at 30 different wines as we look to explore the nuances of our vineyards and winemaking craft in producing more small batch wines in addition to our main focus wines.

It has been such a nice harvest – with the luxury of being able to pick small parcels of our vineyard blocks on most days over the past eight weeks. As mentioned in previous updates, the yields are lower than we expected, however the quality across the board is outstanding for both white and red wines. 

I believe 2018 will go down as one of the great years in Margaret River, producing wines with great flavour, concentration and pure varietal expression from the individual vineyard sites.

Steve James
Manager, Winemaking & Viticulture

150 years of farming underpin my family's dedication to Voyager Estate. Our viticulture and winemaking bring everything I love about agriculture together in one enterprise.I settled on our special site in Stevens Valley because it had the ideal characteristics to create wines that are at home amongst the world's best. Its geology is the oldest in Australia and the gravel soils, microclimate, aspect and consistent maritime influence make up the foundations of the distinctive Voyager Estate style.

The final step in the journey is the best - inviting everyone to come and enjoy a glass with us in Margaret River. The perfect combination of food, wine and the warmth of family and friends is what a visit to Voyager Estate is about. From the flawless Cape Dutch architecture and stunning gardens, to the spectacular Wine Room and award-winning Restaurant, every feature of the Estate is designed to give you an inspirational experience.

Michael Wright, Founder 
1937 - 2012

We are meticulous in everything we do: from site, varietal and clonal selection to vineyard management and winemaking. A combination of organic methods, sustainable principles and the latest in technology create the ultimate balance for our vineyards and soils. We take an individual approach to each and every vineyard block on our Estate. At every step of the way, we work with the ‘big picture’ in mind, acknowledging the characters that each block will contribute to the final wines. We follow an intensive “hands on” vine management program in our vineyard – from hand pruning, shoot thinning, yield thinning and green thinning – everything is done with great attention to detail.

In February 2018, we announced the organic conversion of 40ha of our vineyard, with plans to convert the remainder over the next three years.  This means our Estate and all of our wines will be certified organic by 2023 by Australian Certified Organic. We have followed a sustainable farming approach to our viticulture for many years. We focus on building a healthy and resilient vineyard through the use of natural products, building healthy soils and encouraging bio diversity such as 'good bugs' and cover crops. The “minimal input” methods that we use to nurture our soils, forces our vines to develop a stronger and deeper root system resulting in tougher more resilient vines that in turn produce grapes with thicker skins. This means the fruit is more naturally resistant to disease and displays added layers of flavour, complexity and vibrancy. Our approach to soil balance and nutrition was appraised by renowned French soil scientist, Claude Bourguignon in early 2018.

Climate

We are blessed with ideal climatic conditions; moderate temperatures with extremes of heat or cold; good rainfall between May and October; a dry growing and harvest period; plenty of sunshine during the ripening period but with cool evenings that helps with fruit flavour development and fresh acidity and sea breezes with the prevailing south westerly off the Indian Ocean acting like a giant air conditioner for our vineyards.

Uniformity

Within each of our vineyard blocks we aim to achieve uniformity, meaning every vine within a specific block will have the same number of buds at pruning, the same number of shoots and the same number of bunches. The reason we are obsessed with uniformity is because it is a key driver of exceptional quality. If the grapes are able to ripen in unison, the parcels of fruit that are finally delivered to the winery will be exceptionally pure expressions of each block at optimal ripeness.

Five vineyards

The original 1978 plantings are found on our Estate Block which surrounds our Cellar Door and winery but Michael Wright recognised the viticultural value of the surrounding land. The five vineyards of Voyager Estate are all adjoining properties, and while each have their own nuances, they are all planted on well drained gravelly soils which produce fruit with purity, structure and balance. The vineyards are; Voyager (founding Estate vineyards that are 40 years old in 2018), Broadvale, Ullingers, Weightmans and Cordis.  Our single block wines are named based on the vineyards they are sourced, for example our V9 Old Block Cabernet Sauvignon is sourced from Voyager Block 9, located in front of our Cellar Door and one of our oldest blocks.

Striving for balance, elegance and complexity

Our meticulous approach in the vineyard continues in the winery, with sensitive winemaking techniques allowing the wines to express a sense of place without other influences dominating. These techniques have been at the heart of the Voyager Estate winemaking philosophy for more than 20 years. It is for this reason that we have been able to forge a reputation for balanced, elegant, subtle wines of great character and with a sense of place that is uniquely southern Margaret RIver.

Oak

We use very high quality, predominantly tight-grained French oak. Our aim is for the oak to offer structure and complexity to the wine and support the full expression of the vineyard site, rather than assert its own characteristics in the wine. Again, this is about balance. 

Small batch

We use small batch fermentation to keep small blocks, or particular parts of a block, separate throughout the fermentation and maturation process. This means that we can use the final blending stage to achieve balance and finesse in our wines. 

Fruit care

Sensitive handling of the fruit includes hand harvesting, individually sorting and whole bunch pressing Chardonnay. We use a sorting table to hand-sort red fruit. This involes removing leaves, stalks and other materials to ensure that only fruit enters the fermentation vessel. Keeping the Cabernet at 28 degrees during this process preserves the fruit-freshness.

Fermentation

We use wild yeast in Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc to create complexity and texture, resulting in wines with more interesting characters and flavours. We only use the gently pressed juice from the white grapes for our Estate wines, resulting in finer, more elegant wines.