Retasting a Farr wine is a great pleasure on at least two levels.
Firstly, it’s a Farr, so if you’re choosing wine remember rule No.1, 2 and 3; producer, producer, producer. Every wine that I have tasted whether it be Farr Rising, By Farr, or Irrewarra is exceptional.
Secondly, every tasting reveals a wine in evolution and in the case of the 2024 Irrewarra, I was struck by the compounding intensity, balance, shape and deepening mid palate. There was just a hell of lot more. Rarely would I update a tasting note, or rewrite the same wine twice, but in this case, I feel an exception needs to be made.
Wines coming off the Farr vineyard in Bannockburn always display the character traits of their sites and maker, and with almost fifty years of winemaking experience in the region they have seen just about everything that a vintage can throw at them.
Irrewarra however, has always presented quite differently, and not only due to the utterly different site characteristics, but that the winemaking was in a state of evolution; the Farr’s finding their vinous feet in a region that isn’t a region.
In the past, I have tended to think that the pinot noir had two sides, the front and back end of the palate. Red fruited, spicy, earthy and expressive, with some pretty firm tannins to close out the wine. Two delicious sides for all that, but not quite complete, with a little bit lacking in the mid palate, and the tannins, not quite as finessed.
For me, this all changed with the 2023, the finest to date, and a thoroughly exciting wine, albeit a totally different expression of pinot, and yet so pinot. It was a fabulous contradiction.
If 2023 set a new standard, then 2024 has set the benchmark. The most thoroughly complete Irrewarra pinot noir to date, the Farr’s mastering what is a very Australian piece of real estate.
The fruits, still red, very red and tangy, with strong notes of plum and in a sense the wine’s shape is very round. Voluminous palate, enveloping, with a ballooning of texture and turbo charged flavour. Flecked with spices; paprika, tarragon, tar and fresh compost, the tannins so finessed and silky, yet framing and decisive.
I love the harnessing of elements, the effort to balance everything the site has to offer and not push the wine into something it’s not. Not as savoury as some commentators have claimed and in no way does it taste like something out of Burgundy. And so it shouldn’t. It’s very pinot, Irrewarra style.
