Halliday Wine Companion Top 100 #5 rated winery for 2023 - By Farr
"Every year, in any list, Geelong's By Farr winery is one of the first picked. This is a single-minded producer if ever there was one; this is a producer interested in quality and nothing else."
- Campbell Mattinson, Halliday Wine Companion
The Real Review Winery of the Year Australia 2022 - Wine by Farr
"Wine by Farr is a stellar producer of complex pinot noirs and beautiful chardonnays, proudly family owned and managed, and strongly vineyard focused. Its wines are all estate grown and made at the Farr family’s winery at Bannockburn in the Geelong wine region."
- Huone Hooke, The Real Review
Vintage 2023 – by Farr
After three solid years of rain the team had hoped for some different growing conditions. Unfortunately not, a cool and wet Spring in 2022 meant that there was server disease pressure and constant canopy management required up until Christmas. Because of the two previous growing seasons the team was well aware of what was required and did an amazing job once again.
Crop levels certainly seemed below average because of the cool and windy conditions, particularly in the chardonnay sites.
With frequent rain events throughout January and early February the ripen period was making little progress until we finally saw extended days into weeks of dryer and warmer weather. The welcome relief started to show us signs of delicate, super fine flavours, driven by high acidities.
Our first day of picking was set for the 16th March, we decided to hedge our bets and pick a little Chardonnay from the Cooper block and a couple of ton of Pinot from the Windmill block. With acidity still quite high and looking for balance of flavours we decided to not pick again until the 20th March. We harvested our last fruit in Bannockburn on the 6th April, and Irrewarra fruit on the 14th April.
All in all we are excited about the fruit that we grew and the wines they are becoming yet it is the smallest vintage since 2002.
Vintage 2024 – Wine by Farr
The feeling of the season leading up to the 2024 vintage, was one of hope. The property was poised for a healthy and vigorous growing season, yet rainfall is required for this to be achieved ! Some winter rains certainly helped but overall the Spring rains didn’t really eventuate as it had during the previous 4 year’s seasons. The resilience of the vineyards was evident though, with average cropping levels seemingly achievable with the assistance of some timely showers and irrigation to maintain the canopy through some warmer weather during February.
The season was certainly mild throughout but the warmer weather was only towards our first picking date of 27th Feb. We tested the waters and decided after two days of picking that the fruit was capable of achieving greater flavour. We resumed picking on the 4th March and never looked back. The Irrewarra vineyard was started on the 19th March followed wonderfully by the Gamay and Shiraz. As we felt another vintage was coming to a close quite swiftly the Nebbiolo once again didn’t play ball. By mid April it was time to finish, so the Nebbiolo was picked and stalling at 12 Beaume. It was destined for Rose for another year.
The whites fermented extremely slowly but perhaps that has been an important factor in the tension that the wines have maintained, considering the warm finish to the season. Classic “Farr” – Calm power.
As for the reds, they certainly remind me of the 2016 vintage. Wines that where capable of being pushed a little harder than the previous 4 vintages. The end result yet still in barrel, have great concentration, character and poise.
2023 Farr Rising Pinot Noir
The Farr Rising pinot vineyard was planted in 2001 using a large mixture of rootstocks, but only three clones—MV6, 114 and 115. It is a very exposed and hungry north-facing slope, consisting of grey sandy loam mixed with an ironstone pebble (buckshot) at the top. This leads into black volcanic soil over limestone at the bottom of the vineyard.
The fruit is hand harvested, and then sorted in the vineyard. The fruit is fermented in an open-top fermenter, and an average 60 to 70 per cent of it is destemmed. The wine is placed in 20 to 30 per cent new Allier barrels by gravity. It is racked by gas after secondary fermentation, then again at 18 months to be bottled. Over time, the site has shown that it can certainly stand up to its bigger brothers.
The wine typically shows a soft perfumed nose, which begins to build. The palate has sweetness, followed by mineral overtones enhanced by toasty oak, and firm flavours with a long and savoury finish. This is a gem of a wine, with ageing potential of five to eight years from most vintages.
The following tasting notes are courtesy of Ben Knight (Ben and Wine)
'In my opinion, I often wonder when the concept of “Farr Rising” will be considered “risen” .... Ripe, generous, and round in the mouth. This offers weight and intensity you rarely see from this grape. Spice, dark spice, not herbal at all and black ripe fruits all on full show. It’s a powerhouse and entirely seductive, in a way that only Pinot Noir can be. A part of that ability to entice and deliver at the same time, comes down to balance. This is a big Pinot Noir, but it’s still perfumed and has freshness that doesn’t dominate. It’s utterly impressive for a wine that is considered - on the rise!'
2024 Farr Rising Gamay
The gamay was grafted onto own rooted cabernet vines, which were planted in 1999. The soil is black cracking clay soil, with a mixture of submerged volcanic pebbles and boulders at one end, and a more friable and slightly more vigorous chocolate-coloured soil at the other. The first fruit was picked during the 2014 vintage.
The grapes are hand-picked and sorted in the vineyard, then placed in the tank as whole bunches. The tank is sealed and left for 10 days to ferment naturally and release carbonic fruit aromas. The fruit is foot stomped, pressed on days 11 and 12, and then placed in five-year-old barrels to finish the fermentation process. The wine is bottled eight months later.
The nose of the gamay, so far, is fruitful at first before opening up to reveal berry flavours with earthy and gamey notes. The palate is full of red berry fruits with savoury undertones. The structure is long, earthy and lingering. With vibrant acidy and defined tannins, this wine is full of flavour.
The following tasting notes are courtesy of Ben Knight (Ben and Wine)
'Big, dark, and bright colour in the glass. The nose is intense dark spice, punchy with a hit of salinity, savoury herbs and graphite. Behind this assertive forward barrage, or perhaps layered between it, is a perfumed and pretty musk and confectionary element that gives away it’s carbonic production method. The second sniff is more brown spice, mace and cloves, then ripe Christmas cherries. It’s Gamay of course, with broad, confident strokes of the Farr house style.
The palate is summer berries and cream. There is a lovely softness, a full mouth feel and a generosity that sets it apart from most iterations of this grape, but doesn’t stray so far that it loses the archetypal Gamay-ness that is expected. Sitting confidently in the Goldilocks zone of Gamay expression, with a foot clearly in the “more serious than you think” zone, this is a beautiful bottle of wine from one of the Country’s best proponents of Gamay.'
2024 Farr Rising Saignee
Saignee, technically meaning “to bleed game meat or poultry”, refers to the way we ‘bleed’ juice for this wine. We allow the Farr Rising pinot noir fruit to sit in tank for two to three hours before bleeding free-run juice at a suitable colour for rosé production. This process concentrates the pinot ferment, but we also produce a barrel-fermented rosé. Natural barrel fermentation at cool temperatures is followed by full malolacitc fermentation. The wine is then placed in four- and five-year-old barrels for 10 months before being filtered and bottled.
We like to produce a very dry style of rosé, but with flavour and varietal sweetness. It has a salmon-pink hue, is perfumed with fruit and a lovely savoury, earthy palate, and has a long, dry structured finish. This is the perfect wine to have with food—or when pitching woo!
The following tasting notes are courtesy of Ben Knight (Ben and Wine)
'This wine has been gone for too long. I’ve missed it. It has a pinkie onion skin vibe in the glass, and the nose is of ripe fruits, and a complex oak derived aroma, but not simply woody, maybe more like almonds or more specifically a marzipan character. On second smell, the nose is of a tropical fruit note, nothing too precise, but generous and ripe. It’s fun to keep going back to it. Few pink wines have this intrigue or complexity. I like that about it, especially in a world of triviality and instant gratification expected from rosé wine.
This wine will only be more interesting as it develops and evolves, and that type of thing is becoming scarce. The palate of this wine is soft and generous, like a luxurious sofa. Something you don’t want to get out of. One of, if not Australia’s most impressive pink wines and for good reason. That reason being that it’s complex and delicious on release and if you find that you have some in a few years, it will still over deliver, as a terrific bottle of wine, regardless of colour.'
2024 Farr Rising Chardonnay
The Farr Rising chardonnay sits next to the Farr Rising pinot noir vineyard. Unlike the black soil of the latter, however, the chardonnays' soil has a large proportion of grey loam. This vineyard is more protected than other sites because of its undulation, but fertility and growing levels remain very low. The clones used for the chardonnay are a mixture of Dijon clones and Penfolds 58, all planted in 2001.
The fruit is hand-picked and whole-bunch pressed. All the solids are then collected and chilled before being put to barrel. The new barrel percentage of 20 to 30 per cent can consist of Allier and Vogue French forests. A natural fermentation will occur at cool temperatures over the next two months, and once this is finished a small amount of stirring helps start malolactic fermentation. After 11 months in barrel, the wine is racked, fined, and lightly filtered before bottling.
The site typically has citrus blossom, which lifts the well-integrated fruit and wet stone aromatics of this wine. The palate shows great drive, racy acidity, moving towards fine mineral elements. Chardonnay with understated power, length and subtlety from a very textured site with great balance.
The following tasting notes are courtesy of Ben Knight (Ben and Wine)
'It’s a suggestion of a golden flash in the glass. That first interaction makes it pleasing and generous. The nose is faint yellow apple, something peppery, white chocolate, celery leaf, dried mango and baking spice. That sounds like an overreaction, but it’s what I got. Obviously, these are flashes, like a flickering light that begins to illuminate a shape. The palate helps to fill in the gaps. The apple becomes more like white peach, the edgy spice frames the palate just so, and the acid and fruit weight go on and on harmoniously. That’s the end game I guess, interest and balance, and the wine making you want another sip. This wine does just that.'
(Nick Farr - Farr Rising / www.byfarr.com.au)