Farvie Frankland River Syrah

" The beauty of a single vineyard is the versatility and diversity of its expression across different vintages. When you add into this equation the self-regulation of a bush vine, the effect can be profound and the swings between vintages beguiling. The 2020 Farvie Syrah is excellent. It's a ball bearing of a wine—smooth, hard and shiny, polished and seamless. It has structural tannin from the 65% whole bunch without it being bunchy or stemmy. It's moving and developing, but it's still so primary. It has all the Frankland River hallmarks that I seek from wines of this region: ferrous/rust, satsuma plum, iodine, pastrami, blackberry/raspberry, black cherries and mulberries too. The 2020 vintage suits this style of wine I think—it shows the lush fruit alongside the intense tannin, but I kind of want/expect that from the fruit. It is creamy almost, without being lactic or milky. It is succulent, powerful and svelte. With 65% whole bunches in the ferment, there is almost no manual maceration that happens. Whole bunches are put into barrels, sealed for 10 days in order to promote the intracellular breakdown within individual berries, then foot stomped before pressing. Drink 2023 - 2048 "

" Stunning nose of blood, iron, pencil shavings and intense blood plum power. The palate is long and beautifully balanced. Dark berries, damsons, cocoa, ground peppercorns, spices and toast flavours feature in this deep and powerful wine. This is an absolute cracker. "