2020 By Farr Shiraz Australia

While Australian Shiraz built a reputation for big, high-alc power, By Farr produces its exact opposite. Grown in a wind-swept Moorabool Valley that receives just 240 millimeters of rain during the growing season, relentless gales off Victoria's western plains force the vines to yield tiny, thick-skinned berries.

When Gary and Robyn Farr bought their neighboring block in 1998, it had been abandoned for nearly forty years and buried in boxthorn weeds, requiring clearing by hand. Today, these vines sit alongside their 1994 plantings on north-facing slopes of red volcanic soil over limestone and sandstone. The fruit is picked by hand, using 20 percent whole clusters and co-fermenting with 2 to 4 percent estate Viognier—the classic Côte-Rôtie technique that lifts aromatics and refines the structural frame.

After a 19-day wild yeast fermentation and 18 months in French oak (20% new), the 2020 emerges with remarkable peppery detail and mineral persistence. It is a benchmark expression of cool-climate elegance born from a fiercely challenging landscape.