2023 Swinney 'Farvie' Mourvedre
The 2023 Farvie Wines are available on allocation.
Matthew Jukes, The Fifty Fines Wines of 2024, www.matthewjukes.com, January 2025
“This time, the recipe involves 66% whole bunches, and the alcohol level is 13.8%. The fruit comes from the same source as the Grenache. Farvie Mourvèdre is more expansive, and it is immediately convivial. This variety’s softer impact and more open-armed expression lull you into a false sense of security before the trademark Farvie minerality attacks without warning or mercy. The moisture is sucked from the palate and is replaced with stoniness and skin characters that tease and striate. These palate manoeuvres cause rivulets of juiciness to collect, which refresh the senses with clean, free-running, open and gentle red and purple fruit flavours. It is stunning. There are discreet moments of fleshiness and controlled eroticism that work wonders from a pheromonal level. Fig notes and fresh-peeled bark abound, and it glistens with carnality. The fact that the well of profound fruit notes senesces to a single point of awesome and arresting dryness is entirely compelling. ” 19.5/20
Ray Jordan, www.winepilot.com, March 2025
“Oh yes, I love this wine. It has a beautiful perfume and brightness evident on the nose and the palate. This is bush vine Mourvèdre. The structure and palate poise are exceptional. The rustic edges are slightly knocked off. Meaty chorizo but it’s subtle. These characters are trimmed. And in a year like 23, Mourvèdre has less acidity. It has a slightly ironstone rusty nail thread running through it with a tense dry tannin feel in the mouth. It was matured in a single 16-litre vat that has no direct oak impact. The attention to detail is demonstrated by the management of the bush vine canopies allowing attention to each bunch with the resulting uniformity of fruit. Traces of blue fruits with a subtle licorice and tarry character, the wine is lightly more supple and revealing than the Grenache yet less open and opulent than the Syrah.” 99 Points
Nick Ryan, www.theaustralian.com.au, The Weekend Australian Magazine, February 2025
“Licorice and blackberries, cassia bark and coal dust. Black pepper spice, boudin noir, spilled viscera. Pastrami on dark rye. A metalurgic core, something firm and ferrous at its heart. Fine but forthright gravelly tannin. Unapologetically firm through the finish. A brooding beauty, a masterclass in allowing mourvèdre to tread the tightrope between the sacred and the profane.” 98 Points
Erin Larkin, www.robertparker.com, March 2025
“I am so glad that the Farvie range now—since the inaugural vintage in 2021—includes a Mourvèdre. The vineyard is a special place in Frankland River, the bush vines bearing against the seasons atop a rolling slope, set among a wider vineyard area. This tiny pocket accounts for just 2% of the Swinney vineyard holdings, tiny when you consider that. The 2023 Farvie Mourvèdre is less sweetly fruited than the Grenache tasted alongside, with a core of earthy, pure fruit, wrapped by a sheath of grippy, finely milled tannins. This is Mourvèdre every day of the week, yet it has grace and elegance rarely seen in the variety in Australia. It's a significant wine in many respects, not the least will be its long aging potential and its distinct personality. It's very good indeed and very different in each set of vintage conditions. Aside from the tannins, which I absolutely love in every way, the perfume is the most captivating bit about this wine—wet garden roses, petrichor, summer berries, red gravel and dry incense spice—and the perfume permeates the finish. I like it more and more the longer it sits in the glass.” 97+