The season started with average rainfall during spring and winter months. This meant good soil moisture, which translates to a solid, uniformed bud burst. Good rainfall also means abundant food sources other than grapes for our little bird friends. This year inland crops and magnificent blossom on the local Marri trees kept the birds from ravishing our prized Chenin Blanc.

If you had told me two years ago we would be picking Semillon before the early ripening varieties Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc, I would have thought you to be a few berries short of a bunch. So in 2004 of course, Semillon was our first pick on the third of March. Balanced vines and moderate crops are great attributes for early picking with ripe fruit flavours. Over worked and under paid winemakers lived, breathed and dreamt grapes for the next 6-8 weeks.

2004 is a great year for white wines at Voyager Estate. We picked our Chenin Blanc, Sauvignon Blanc, Semillon and Chardonnay at low sugars (11.3-13° Baume) with fresh ripe flavours. The warm season meant spending a huge amount of time in the vineyard tasting fruit. It is one of those years when analyzing sugar, pH, acid in the laboratory was largely a waste of time. Picking on flavour rather than relying on numbers was the only way to get it right.

The warmer vintages of 1999, 2001 and 2003 were very successful for Voyager Estate Chardonnay and I believe this wine to be in a similar mould. Potentially the lowest alcohol Chardonnay we have ever produced, the 2004 wine has lovely tight fruit in the grapefruit and citrus spectrum. This is the first year looking at some of the highly prized French clonal material. The early signs are very promising. We are looking for added texture and complexity to compliment the fruit flavours we get from our existing clonal material.
The Sauvignon Blanc/ Semillon blend again looks very promising. The Sauvignon Blancs were harvested over a range of Baume as to achieve a complex array of fruit flavours and aromas. The earlier picks display herbal characters with lovely acidity. The middle and latter picks displaying fine lemon citrus, lychee, ripe citrus through to passion fruit. Very strong fruit flavours on the nose and palate characterize a great vintage for this blend. I believe this to be the finest SBS blend yet made by Voyager Estate.

The warmth that arrived around Easter quickly ripened the reds, which resulted in intense colour, flavour and aromas. Wonderful tannins and lovely aromatics are the hallmark of this vintage. I believe the Cab blends to have slightly more fruit power than the wines from last year although the Shiraz from the previous vintage just may be the best we have yet produced. All red varieties had great skins and we extracted lovely soft fruit flavours using extended skin contact.

Wine lovers should be very excited about the 2004 vintage wines; across the board they are outstanding. Keep an eye out for our first varietal Sauvignon Blanc release in this newsletter. We have been playing around for several years to find a batch of wine worthy of a 100% varietal release. This wine is made in small quantities and is available only through cellar door and mailing list.