2017 PINOT NOIR, RP Côte Vineyard, By Farr. Geelong, Victoria, Australia

By Farr are based in Geelong, about 80km west of Melbourne. It’s not a beautiful area but the cooling ocean breezes and the aged limestone soils make it ideal for growing Pinot Noir.
From the website of their UK agent:
“The fruit for this wine is sourced from densely planted Pinot Noir vines in the exposed Côte Vineyard. These hillsides facing North, North East and East will be the backbone of the Farr dynasty for decades to come. The North côte is reddish brown loam with buckshot stones across the surface. The most exposed of the three côtes, it is harvested last because of the large amount of clay, holding valuable moisture for longer than the other slopes. The North East côte is a continuation of buckshot until the soil becomes black and lined with limestone moving towards the bottom of the rows and a depression that divides limestone from sandstone. At the highest point of the vineyard, there are small amounts of sandstone in the grey sandy loam. The East côte is divided through the centre of the slope by a rise. Black volcanic soil with fragmented limestone in one direction and grey loam with buckshot stones in the other direction. As the East côte has the least amount of clay and tends to retain less water, it is harvested first, even though it is the coolest of the sites.”

Pinot Noir, 50% fermented as ‘whole bunches’, all matured in oak (half new wood) for 18 months.

Gary Farr and his son Nick have 33 acres of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. Both have worked many vintages at the much revered Domaine Dujac in Morey-St-Denis – where the Seysses family are great believers in the use of whole bunches for fermentation. (It results in paler colours, but finer aromatics).

Expensive, for sure, but this is complex, spicy, very ‘pure’ Pinot Noir of a kind that you will rarely find outside Burgundy. It’s richer than fine Burgundy, but give it time and the complexity will be comparable.