Winemaker notes
Being able to grow fruit for a Tom Price wine is a wonderful challenge for a viticulturist. I have the exciting and enjoyable responsibility of singling out pockets of the vineyard for special nurturing as Tom Price blocks. Though not every vintage ensures a Tom Price wine, seasons like 2004 make all the years of effort worthwhile. The early season was blessed with good rainfall which allowed for excellent soil moisture and budburst was even with a bright green leaf colour superior to anything seen before on our vineyards. When the rains fell away in early October the vines were well set up for uniform flowering. The weather conditions in the ripening phase
were outstanding, with a classic warm and dry ‘Indian summer’ lasting well into April. Our vineyard techniques didn’t skip a beat and the result was fruit harvested in optimum condition with perfectly balanced flavours and ripe, super-fine tannins. 26-year-old original Estate vines have provided the fruit for this wine. The fruit was hand-picked and hand-sorted before being crafted by the winemaking team over a number of years into the wine that it is today. Meanwhile, my team and I are waiting patiently for another 2004.
Steve James,
Viticulturist
The Wine
At Voyager Estate we have always maintained that great wines are made in great vineyards. In reality, however, when considering how rare wines such as Tom Price are made, it is a combination of several factors that all come together at once, a very exceptional event indeed. It takes phenomenal vintage conditions, excellent vineyard management and careful winemaking to make a wine we deem worthy enough to be considered a Tom Price wine. On these rare occasions, when all the factors do align, we simply give the fruit the lead and act as the caretaker, thus allowing the wine to evolve from its natural origins. The fruit components for this wine were divided into two batches that were fermented in open and upright fermenters with regular pump-overs or plunging for soft extraction. Fermentation was conducted with small amounts of the 796 Bordeaux yeast strain at temperatures around 30 degrees. Ferments lasted as long as 21 days, after which one component was pressed, while the other was left on skins for further texture and tannin modification. The two wines were inoculated for malolactic
fermentation and then transferred to barrel for 24 months. Two years later, the wine that emerged for bottling was a true reflection of the fruit that started it all. The 2004 Tom Price Cabernet Sauvignon has been a delight to craft. It will age beautifully and reward those who join it on this journey.
Cliff Royle,
Senior Winemaker
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