These may just save my life if I ever become pregnant…

Disclosure: I was gifted a case of the Voyager Estate red and white sparkling grape juice.

Immediately when I think about sparkling grape juice, I think of pregnant women and children. I mean why else would you go there?

Recently Voyager Estate in the Margaret River gifted me a case each of their sparkling red and white grape juices for me to taste. I’m quite a fan of the Voyager Estate wines (the alcoholic ones, that is!) so I thought they couldn’t be all bad. And hey, there’s no rules about not spiking the grape juice with vodka now is there!

Before I received the bottles I decided to do some digging into why the heck they are wasting good quality wine grapes on such products and I have to admit I was pleasantly surprised and I absolutely love the story behind these alcohol free sparkling wines.

The story behind Voyager Estates Grape Juice

The founder of Voyager Estate, Michael Wright, surprisingly enough was not a big boozer. Yep you read that right! Therefore he began his own side project at the winery and that was to use the same grapes used in the wines to make alcohol free sparkling grape juice. Michael has sadly passed away but the Voyager Estate team like to keep his legacy alive by continuing to make it.

The grapes may change year on year which go into the grape juice however you can be sure that they’re of exceptional quality and are treated with as much care as their award-winning, world-class wines. The grapes are machine-harvested (at about 14-15 baumé, 280-300g/L sugar) and then crushed and pressed immediately after.

The red sparkling grape juice gets its colour from spending 6-8 hours on its red grape skins after crushing. After this the grape juice is filtered to give it that crystal clear demeanour and then diluted to make it not so syrupy. Once at the perfect level the juice is moved into stainless steel tanks to be pressurised with carbon dioxide to give it that lovely fizz.

After this, the juice is then bottled under pressure and sterilised to ensure the grape juice tastes great when you pop the cap on it.

So what’s the verdict on this non-alcoholic grape juice?

Firstly, I’m a sucker for lovely packaging. The brown, nearly vintage looking carry pack of six 330ml bottles looks fantastic. It’d look classy to take along to a BBQ or picnic and I’m sure most people would probably think it was alcoholic too. So perhaps a good one to hide the baby news 😉

A case of 24 bottles sells roughly for $100, so you’re looking at about $4 per bottle which is pretty reasonable in my opinion. A great alternative to soft drink which sells at a fairly similar price. The 2012 vintage which I received (haha yes it’s vintage non-alcoholic grape juice of course!) is made from Sauvignon Blanc grapes for the white and Shiraz grapes for the red. Personally I preferred the white better, I didn’t find it as sweet as the red, and it seemed to have a touch more acidity which is right up my alley.

I enjoyed both varieties, however I did find them both rather rich on the palate. I was happily satisfied after a bottle and I can definitely see these cute bottles of fizz being popular in Summer particularly around the breakfast table.

Where can you buy the grape juice?

The Grape Juice is stocked at The Boat Shed in Cottesloe, The Re Store in Leederville, The Herdsman in Churchlands, Basils in Mindarie and Liquor Barons in Swanbourne and of course on the Voyager Estate website. If you’re on the East coast of Aussie, then you’ll need to order it online via the website.

A big thank-you to the Voyager Estate team for opening my world up to a whole new side of the wine industry!