Bar & Bites: Voyager Estate’s sustainability mission on show from farm to plate, and in the barrels

Voyager Estate head chef Travis Crane was hanging up massive bulbs of garlic when we rolled up to the winery’s Landsmith Home Farm recently.

The affable Queenslander, whose previous gig was cheffing for a dozen guests at luxury Finniss River Lodge in the Northern Territory, seems like a real nature boy.

After giving us a tour of the abundant garden growing, among other plants, Jerusalem artichokes, cucumbers and tomatoes (plus some white asparagus ) overseen by his wife Jane-Louise Mercer, we jumped into his 4WD to hoon around the farm.

We met a small herd of Belted Galloway, a Scottish breed of cattle, saw a troop of kangaroos in one of the small plantations and saw five remaining ducks of around 40 after a fox attack two nights before.

There’s a dam chockers with marron, but they’ll need to complete plenty of paperwork before they end up on plates.

Oh, and there were lots of vines. Voyager Estate is a winery, after all. One on a sustainable mission under current owner Alexandra Burt, who took over in 2012 following the death of her father, iron ore billionaire Michael Wright, who bought the property in 1991 despite being a teetotaller.

Voyager is earning its Australian Certified Organic accreditation paddock by paddock. It’s a 400ha joint (of which a quarter is under vine) so, as the old shampoo commercial said, it won’t happen overnight, but it will happen.

Viticulture here is also sustainable, as sommelier Claire Tonon explained as she took us through “where the magic happens”.

She gave us tastings straight from barrels, including acclaimed hand-picked chardonnays, before we headed into the Cape Dutch-inspired tasting room for a crack at the finished products.

That enjoyable process led into the restaurant, where Crane wowed us with an incredible tasting menu that costs $230 with matching wines.

Wine leads the dishes, with Tonon working with Crane on the menu, which leans into the sustainable, farm-to-table ideals guiding one of Margaret Rivers’ longest-running wineries.

While he works within limitations of seasonal produce, the chef still plates up brilliant dishes, including a brand new cucumber and sheep’s curd number plus sensational pork and koji-rubbed beef courses.

In between savoury courses and dessert, Crane took us out into the kitchen garden. The dedicated forager plucked us herbs and native botanicals to taste, including a few varieties of mint. We really didn’t need sorbet to cleanse our palates when we returned to our epic lunch.

One plant tasted exactly like mustard, while others gave more aniseed notes than liquorice. Like the various other flora and fauna, these end up on plates.

Crane, who told winsome tales of befriending a rambunctious water buffalo called Betty Lou during his NT stint, finds inspiration by growing (or finding) his own produce.

“Sourcing produce farm-direct changes the way you approach cooking,” he says. “Instead of conceiving a dish and then trying to source the produce, the model is flipped on its head.

“Inspiration comes from your own property, local producers, and the wild ingredients around us.”

Simon Collins was a guest of Voyager Estate.