2023 Swinney 'Farvie' Syrah
The 2023 Farvie Wines are available on allocation.
Mike Bennie, www.winecompanian.com, January 2025
"A magnificent syrah with dark fruits, charry spice, licorice, leafy herbal nuance, brined olive notes and distinct minerality on show. It feels medium bodied but the concentration and slip of meaty tannin lends fullness to the pitch-perfect mid-bodied feel. Tannins keep the wine slippery, refreshing, fine tuned and draw the wine long. There's a distinction and elegance at play. Perfumed, supple, incredibly layered syrah with regional typicity at the forefront. Take a bow." 96 pts
Ray Jordan, www.winepilot.com, March 2025
"Wow, deep colour and a powerful aroma announce a wine of power, poise and presence. Deep black and dark red colour with touches of purple. There is a sweet and beautiful spicy freshness and energy that bursts from the glass. This wine is about feel, and there is a saline minerality and alkaline character combining with an almost glazed shimmering sheen. It is a wine that is both detailed and expansive with layered revealing textures and flavours burning within. The fruit is from dry-grown vertically trellised vines on the Powerbark and Wilson’s Pool vineyards. And the detail comes from the handpicking berry sorting approach before gravity feeding the two demi muids with a 55% whole bunch component. A remarkable wine that challenges our greatest Shiraz albeit with a stylistic difference." 99 pts
Nick Ryan, www.theaustralian.com.au, The Weekend Australian Magazine, February 2025
“A little reductive at first, plum skin and salted licorice, pipe tobacco and beef broth. Black olive and boot polish. Savoury, tight, earthy. With time, black and blue berries emerge, and the wine takes on a little flesh as well. But a firm, ironstone spine remains. Incredible focus and precision. ” 97 Points
Matthew Jukes, The Fifty Finest Wines of 2024, www.matthewjukes.com, January 2025
"Finally, the featured wine in this extraordinary trio. 2023 Swinney Farvie Syrah employs 55% whole bunches, 13.7% alcohol, and the fruit is derived 70% Powderbark B2 and 30% Wilson’s Pool. This is a super-closed and incredibly combative wine, and all the action happens in pin-drop silence. This is a quiet assassin, and the tension throughout is remarkable. It is not easy to determine the grape variety on first taste, and nor should it be because the vineyard and its intense minerality speak louder than the flesh and skins of the grapes. The frictive layers of anti-fruit silently fall away to reveal a spectacular statuesque Syrah. Toned, lithe, brightly fruited and yet immovable, there is not a molecule out of place, and it stands riveted to the spot with a commanding gaze and unshakable temperament." 20+/20
Erin Larkin, www.robertparker.com, March 2025
“The 2023 Farvie Syrah is streamlined and tightly coiled, with layers of compacted red gravel, dried rose petals, blood and licorice, dried herbs and caper brine, tapenade and sandalwood. This is all blue fruit; the tannins are firm but very fine, profuse without being overbearing and all derived from the fruit and stems (approximately 60% in 2023). At 13.9% alcohol, this is fine, fresh and bloody, and it's so exciting to feel, as the tannins are everything we could hope for, as fine wine lovers, seamlessly integrated and natural, contributing to the overall effortlessness of the wine. Bravo.” 97+