2021 By Farr Chardonnay Australia

Nick Farr does not send samples to critics or court the press; Decanter had to fly to Geelong and knock on the door just to taste the range. That deliberate isolation is why published scores are rare for a producer Australian collectors treat as an absolute benchmark.

The estate sits in the Moorabool Valley, an ancient seafloor lifted by volcanic activity 20,000 years ago that left limestone and basalt intertwined beneath a windswept plain. Gary Farr began as the inaugural winemaker at Bannockburn in 1978, when Pinot Noir and Chardonnay were virtually unheard of in Australia. In 1983, he traveled to France and spent ten vintages learning at Domaine Dujac in Morey-Saint-Denis. He and his wife Robyn bought this property in 1994, establishing an estate that spans 130 total acres with just 36 planted to vines.

These Chardonnay vines are now over 25 years old, anchored in red volcanic topsoil over limestone. Hand-harvested fruit is whole-bunch pressed and ferments slowly on wild yeasts in barrel for up to two months. The 2021 captures breathtaking tension, balancing stone fruit and subtle reductive flint with the deep mineral depth of an ancient ocean floor.