Margaret River Wineries: Voyager Estate wine tasting in Michael’s Room
Disclosure: The Travelling Corkscrew was hosted with compliments of Voyager Estate.
This will be part 1 of 3 blog posts on Voyager Estate as I literally spent 5 hours at this fantastic Margaret River winery venue and each part of my day really deserves it’s own time in the limelight!
Voyager Estate is a magnificent winery, with one of the largest & tallest Australian flags (15 metres by 7.5 metres) flying high above the winery’s Versailles like manicured gardens and the outstretched grape vines as far as the eye can see. If you’re a garden lover, you’ll absolutely love all the roses and beauty of this Margaret River winery.
Our first stop on our day at Voyager Estate was in the wine room. The wine tasting room (cellar door) is housed in a white Cape Dutch style architecture building which is inspired by the original South African farmhouses. The South African influence stems from Michael Wright (the founder who has now sadly passed away) wanting to encompass the heritage of the region – the first wine grape vines in Western Australia were introduced from South Africa in 1829.
Once inside you still have that big brawny wood finish of a farmhouse yet Voyager Estate has come along and sprinkled elegance throughout the room. You can do self guided tastings on iPads at gorgeously set up tables, chat to the cellar door staff at the large counter in the middle of the room or like myself and Mr. Spittoon you can experience a private tasting.
A tasting in the private Michael’s Room is a place where you can taste, learn and experience wine with out all the hustle and bustle. There are various tastings you can do, we were invited to do the ‘Introduction to Wine Tasting’ which is $30pp. This is a fun 1 hour session running on Wednesday and Saturday mornings at 10:30am.
The best bit about this tasting has to be the Sommelier who guides you through the tasting, Claire Tonon. I say this because she simply has so much passion and love for wine that you’ll find yourself completely captivated. It’s inspiring to meet such a enthusiastic person as the feeling really is contagious. In the session she’ll go into detail about how the wines are made and what makes them special. She makes the experience fun and explains all those tricky wine terms . No wine snobbery at all.
We tasted through 9 wines and alongside this we also had plenty of water at hand, crackers, spittoons and a note book and pencil to jot down notes if we needed too. My favourites had to be the 2012 VOC Sauvignon Blanc with the lovely dried herb, gooseberry and vanilla aromas and I just fell in love with the 2010, 2007 and 2006 Chardonnay’s – all different flavour profiles and all fantastically lovely. The pre-release of the 2005 Cabernet that we tried was also a winner with it’s dark black fruit and meatiness – it was juicy, with tight tannins and mouth watering acidity, this wine is going to be a show-stopper in years to come.
All up it was a fantastic experience, you’re able to learn about the wines, and the stories that come with them in the privacy of your own beautifully furnished room. And I promise you’ll walk out of there with an even stronger love for the wine world than when you went in.
It is a great way to start a day of wine tasting in the Margaret River wine region. For more information please check out the Voyager Estate website and keep tuned for my upcoming blog posts on the Estate Winery Tour and the Discovery Menu degustation lunch at Voyager Estate!
If you’re planning a trip to the Margaret River Wine Region, make sure to check out the accommodation, wine tour & attraction ideas on margaretriver.com, email [email protected] or call (08) 9780 5911
