By Farr is the brand of the Farr Family, started in 1994 by Robyn and Gary on a north facing slope in the township of Bannockburn in the Moorabool Valley. The Original wines where Chardonnay by Farr, Viognier by Farr, Shiraz by Farr and Pinot Noir by Farr now known as Sangreal by Farr. Overtime with the help of Cassie and Nick the vineyards have expand to adjoining neighbouring properties and eventually greater expression of the single site wines that we have today because of the pieces of dirt that we love to farm. The wines of By Farr are built around complexity, layered structure and undeniable length that places them in the highest regard by both consumers for their drinkability and age worthiness or critics around the world for their individuality.
The Farr estate is located in the Moorabool Valley between Geelong and Ballarat, 100km southwest of Melbourne. Gary and Robyn Farr purchased the original property in 1994 and the second section in 1998—this latter had been untouched for almost 40 years and consisted of dense boxthorn and noxious weeds. The final piece of the puzzle, which links the two blocks of land, was purchased by Nick and Cassie Farr in 2011, making a total of 130 acres. Nick and Gary Farr stand side by side, but aren’t afraid to go head-to-head when their opinions differ. Each generation has developed a distinctive winemaking style based on his individual experience and taste, and their respective lines - By Farr by Gary, and Farr Rising by Nick - have received critical acclaim both in Australia and overseas.
The RP Pinot Noir (RP – Robyn Pamela) is in recognition of the matriarch. It is not only the support and goffering that Robyn has endured for Gary’s 40 year career. She has been in the vineyard and planted the first vines, driven the tractors, filled barrels and pigeaged at midnight. If we are ever a man down Robyn has always been the first one we have called to fill the void no matter the job, no matter the time of day. You can always count on mum.
The fruit for this wine is sourced from the Cote Vineyard as is the GC Chardonnay. A close planted / high density planting of Pinot Noir on a exposed cote. These hillsides facing North, North East and East will be the backbone of the Farr dynasty for decades to come.
Robyn Pamela. What a fitting wine for Nick’s mum. It’s regal, not that Robyn would want that type of characterisation, but she is and so is the wine. I tasted a wine blind last week that Nick sent me and I starting talking about the fruit profile. He then asked about tannin ripeness, which I had overlooked entirely. (These folk are into the minutiae when it comes to their wine.) The RP is complete. Fruit expression, house style, physiological ripeness (the tannin thing he asked me about) is all resolved, all fully formed and ready. The acid line works more like a Soprano, balancing and thrilling us. The fruit expression just right, dark Xmas cherries, bags of spice and tang and ripe lickable tannins. Remember the bit about hyperbole I mentioned earlier? There’s no basic way to describe these wines, not because these are flavours that don’t exist in wine, but because it’s just so hard to fit them all in to one wine, with the structure just right and the oak there, but not there at all. - Ben Knight (For Nick Farr)
