Fresh off winning the Real Review Winery of the Year in 2022, with mastermind Nick Farr having received the Gourmet Traveler Winemaker of the Year in 2020, there's always a well-deserved buzz this time of year when the new By Farr range drops! It has become clear they have cemented themselves into Australian wine folklore, sitting among the country's most celebrated vineyards. From over in their Bannockburn-based vineyards in Victoria's cool Geelong wine region, the team has built on each and every success since their inception in 1994, solidifying their unique identity and nurturing these classic grapes.
We'll have these open this Saturday (15th July) at what will be one brilliant tasting, running 12 to 2pm! The limelight is rightfully shone on the Chardonnay and Pinot Noirs here, but the gorgeous Viognier and Shiraz expressions are not to be missed either - we know this one will be popular, so be sure to get in on Saturday before they all run out!
2022 Viognier - $93 on special ; $105 RRP
"Viognier is foot stomped and left for two or more hours on its skins to extract the phenols, flavour and texture. The fruit is then pressed, cooled and put straight into barrel with all solids for a natural fermentation. Gentle stirring during the end of autumn encourages malolactic fermentation, which softens the finish by converting the tart malic acid to lactic acid. It’s supreme. It has this sleek chardonnay-esque wrapping that holds the apricot core of this wine so beautifully. The texture is chiselled, the flavours confident and intense, but they don’t take over. It’s not an apricot wine, for instance. This has a note of dried apricots, but it also carries a stone fruit element, white flowers, ginger, barrel work and then terrific acidity. It’s like Chardonnay with benefits. There’s never much, there never has been, but the Viognier was always the hidden treasure, only to be found by those that had tried the obscure and rare appellations of Condrieu or Chateau Grillet. Don’t chill it too much, just let it be cool, not frigid." - Ben Knight, Gourmet Traveller/Melbourne Wine Writer
2022 Chardonnay - $93 on special ; $105 RRP
"The fruit is hand-picked then whole-bunch pressed in the winery. All the solids are collected and chilled before being put to barrel, which are 30 per cent new French oak. A natural fermentation will occur at cool temperatures over the next one to two months, and then a small amount of stirring helps start malolactic fermentation. The wine is then racked, fined and lightly filtered before bottling 11 months after picking. A very mineral site for chardonnay. River pebbles, struck match, stone fruit, spice, citrus. All that just from the first sniff. The skill to have so much on offer in a glass, yet keep the palate under such tension is really something. The ‘22 By Farr Chardonnay just gives and gives, from flavour to texture through to the finish. It’s long and incredibly fine but also has a softness to it. Perhaps some malo, perhaps some lees work. The wood is like a bass note to a melody and gives the wine an unassuming gravitas and rounds out what is an exemplary and beautifully balanced Chardonnay." - Ben Knight, Gourmet Traveller/Melbourne Wine Writer
2021 Farrside Pinot Noir - $93 on special ; $105 RRP
"The fruit is hand-picked and sorted in the vineyard, then fermented in an open-top fermenter. Between 40 to 50 per cent of the fruit will be stemmed and then cold soaked for four days. We use only the natural yeast for the fermentation process, which takes roughly 12 days. Grape-stomping (known as pigeage) will occur two to three times a day, and the wine is then placed in 50 to 60 per cent new Allier barrels by gravity. There’s a similar texture here to the Sangreal, but the flavour profile is darker, not leathery, but a tougher skin, a denser fruit expression which seems to make the wine more resolute. The whole wine feels tighter, more closely bound and brooding. I don’t think beautiful is the right word to describe the aroma of this one, it’s too simple a word. There’s ripe fruit, cherries and dark plums, there’s the hit of whole bunch, wood and earth. There’s so many points of light in this wine, it’s hard to single out just one key theme." - Ben Knight, Gourmet Traveller/Melbourne Wine Writer
2021 Shiraz - $93 on special ; $105 RRP
"All fruit is hand-picked from the VSP trellising, with 20 per cent left as whole bunches in the fermentation. Most years we co-ferment between 2 and 4 per cent viognier with the shiraz, the date determining whether or not the former is co-fermented and bled back. It is a natural fermentation, with the fruit remaining in the tank for 19 days before pressing. Shiraz sees 18 months in French oak, 20 per cent being new. The Shiraz is a bit of a shape shifter. Initial notes suggest a deep, velvet wine, full of black fruit and spice. As the wine opens up there is a brightness to it, a summer pudding type fruit expression of berries and cream. More spice comes through, black olive tapenade, it’s rich yet savoury. There is a note of whole bunch, that green zone crunch, tang and lift and it finishes with such a pure crack of pepper; pink, campot and some white pepper too. Endlessly intriguing and mouthwatering. Whilst Pinot Noir takes the limelight at By Farr, you would do yourself a great disservice to not think this is one of the very best Shiraz being made in Australia, and as such, terrifically undervalued." - Ben Knight, Gourmet Traveller/Melbourne Wine Writer
2021 Sangreal Pinot Noir - $115 on special ; $130 RRP
"Sangreal is consistently made with 60 to 70 per cent whole bunch and aged in new oak. It is fermented in a five-tonne oak barrel with an open-top fermenter, and cold soaked for four days before a natural fermentation of seven to nine days. Once the cap falls, the tank is pressed. The wine is racked only once after malolactic fermentation, then sulphured and bottled, the entire process taking a total of 18 months. The wine is unfined and unfiltered in order to retain its natural flavour and bouquet. Sangreal is the most seamless and perfumed of the three single-vineyard pinots. There’s no wall flowers in the Farr winery and these Pinots are testament to that. It’s immediately engaging, it’s got something to say. Big aromatic spice notes, whole bunch influence, ripe fruit and an exotic character that really draws you in. It has a lovely softness, but it doesn’t offer this at the expense of structure. The acid line is en pointe, and it needs to be with so much happening in this wine. These change the script when it comes to Australian Pinot Noir, they are peerless." - Ben Knight, Gourmet Traveller/Melbourne Wine Writer
- Also Available -
By Farr Irrewarra Chardonnay 2022 - $65 on special
&
By Farr Irrewarra Pinot Noir 2022 - $65 on special
If you wish to purchase these wines, please use the links above. Alternatively, email us at sales@thewineemporium.com.au, or contact us on (07)32521117 if you have any questions // Prices valid until Thursday the 20th of July