Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Assertively structured pinot noir. Ripe dark cherry and layers of toasted spices, earthy nuances and stony savory elements. This offers bold structure. Assertive tannins fire up through the finish. Best from 2020.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The current release, By Farr's 2015 Farrside Pinot Noir is by turns dark and brooding and bright and fresh. It almost seems to depend which sip one takes. Is it black cherries or raspberries? Earthy and meaty or red-fruited and pure? That's the level of well-integrated complexity boasted by this exceptional wine. It's medium-bodied and solidly built, with firm but ripe tannins that softly frame the fruit, dressed up with hints of French oak. Already approachable, it should easily age through 2025.
Thin-skinned, finicky and temperamental, Pinot Noir is also one of the most rewarding grapes to grow and remains a labor of love for some of the greatest vignerons in Burgundy. Fairly adaptable but highly reflective of the environment in which it is grown, Pinot Noir prefers a cool climate and requires low yields to achieve high quality. Outside of France, outstanding examples come from in Oregon, California and throughout specific locations in wine-producing world. Somm Secret—André Tchelistcheff, California’s most influential post-Prohibition winemaker decidedly stayed away from the grape, claiming “God made Cabernet. The Devil made Pinot Noir.”
Comprised mainly of boutique, family-owned and operated wineries, Geelong is one of the cool coastal wine-growing regions of the Port Phillip Zone of Victoria. Here the elevation and proximity to sea breezes—similar to Yarra Valley, Mornington Peninsula and the southern part of Gippsland—allow the region to produce remarkably vivid Chardonnay Pinot Noir. The elegant Shiraz wines from Geelong also attract attention.