Organic. Voyager Estate’s Chardonnay is rooted in the Stevens Valley, within Margaret River’s cooler Wallcliffe subregion. Gentle slopes of red/brown gravelly soils over stony clay, moderated by cooling breezes from the nearby Indian Ocean, provide the setting. Under Tim Shand, the focus remains on expressing this coastal site through carefully selected estate fruit.
The warm, dry 2024 season brought an unusually early harvest and lighter yields. Chardonnay was picked early to preserve freshness and acidity while capturing the season’s generous fruit weight. Gingin leads the blend, supported by Dijon clone 76. With no MJW Chardonnay produced in 2024, the estate bottling also benefited from fruit that might otherwise have been reserved for the flagship.
The season prompted a responsive approach in the cellar. As the wines developed more quickly than usual, Shand brought forward blending and the move out of barrel, rather than following the previous vintage’s timetable. Larger-format puncheons and a reduced contribution of new oak form part of the 2024 approach, keeping the emphasis on the fruit and the vineyard rather than the imprint of the wood.