Australian white blend over £10

DWWA Reguional Trophy

(Image credit: DWWA Reguional Trophy)

Find out who won the regional trophy for over £10. And the winner is...

2010 Voyager Estate Sauvignon Blanc Semillon, Margaret River, Western Australia

Arriving at Michael Wright’s Voyager Estate, you could be forgiven for imagining yourself somehow transported to South Africa, because the gleaming white, gabled buildings are pure Cape Dutch.

This is no accident. Following the purchase in 1991 of Freycinet Estate as it then was, Wright, impressed by Cape Dutch architecture on his many visits to South Africa, decided that the concept was transferable and an ideal theme to showcase Voyager as a winery and visitor destination.

In case you miss it, there’s also what’s thought to be the third largest Australian flag in the country, provoking the local nickname ‘Viagra Estate’.

Voyager Estate is located in the southern part of the Margaret River region in Western Australia, a few kilometres from the Indian Ocean. Wright, a farmer from the world of mining whose Scottish ancestors arrived in Victoria in 1854, settled on the sub-region of Stevens Valley for its gravel soils, microclimate, aspect, and consistent maritime influence. Voyager Estate is also taking significant steps to achieve its long-term objective of being an environmentally-sustainable wine company.

Taking advantage of local conditions, Voyager Estate viticulturist, Steve James, applies simple vineyard principles with a minimal or no-input policy of fertiliser, water and chemicals, ‘and we are employing more and more organic practices’.

The collaboration between winemaking and viticulture has always been a key ingredient in Voyager Estate’s winemaking philosophy.

A blend of roughly two-thirds Sauvignon Blanc and a third Semillon, the 2010 vintage was one of the best growing seasons experienced at Voyager Estate, producing a classic example of the Margaret River style.

Because fruit set was exceptional, indicating heavy yields, routine fruit-thinning was carried out to reduce yields and guarantee quality.

Written by Anthony Rose

Anthony Rose is the wine correspondent of the Independent and i newspapers and contributes to various other publications, among them Decanter Magazine. He was a solicitor in a previous incarnation but decided it was time to get a steady job. He is co-chair of the Decanter World Wine Awards Australia panel and has won a number of awards for wine writing. In 2014 he published The Tapas Bar Guide (Grub Street, £10.99), co-authored with Isabel Cuevas, a guide to tapas bars in the UK. Anthony spends far too much of his time nosing his way around the world in wine competitions, having judged in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Chile, California, Japan, China and France. He is fascinated by Japanese sake and is co-Chairman of the Sake International Challenge in Tokyo and teaches a consumer course at Sake No Hana in London. Anthony is also a published photographer and a founding member of The Wine Gang at ,. Anthony lives in South London and in what spare time he has, he likes to cook, eat and drink the best wines and sakes he can afford on a wine writer’s budget.