2022 Swinney Farvie Syrah, Frankland River

I think this has claims to be the finest Farvie Syrah yet in its relatedly short history. The colour is just brilliant and bright with a glowing purely crimson hue. Power, intensity and concentration delivered with such poise. Bright red fruits with floral dark cherry and a little black olive adds to its nuanced capture on the nose. The palate is sublime, almost perfect, in its structure, poise and delivery. The sweet natural fruits are balanced and aligned with the fine minerally, ironstone ferruginous characters. Continues to redefine the Australian varietal style.

99 points Ray Jordan rayjordan.com.au

The colour alone stops you in your tracks because it is as near-black as possible, interwoven with ravishing midnight blue and sanguineous red tones. The nose seems to take its instruction from the colour, with a profoundly deep engine of malevolent, night-walker-style blackberry and black cherry tones, shot through with Swedish liquorice, fresh peaty soil and cracked black peppercorns. If Nosferatu, Voldemort, Moriarty and Sauron caught up on a day off, they would drink this wine. And given its freshness and purity, it wouldn’t leave them slow off the mark after their rendezvous because, for all of the awe-inspiring qualities in the glass, this is one of the most dynamic Syrahs on earth. Lividity and dynamism join forces to make this another remarkable declaration of the power and poise found in the great Frankland River terroir brought to the fore by inspirational winemaking.

19.5/20 Matthew Jukes matthewjukes.com

Dry grown on a vertical trellis, shade cloth intercepting the afternoon sun; 65%whole bunch; 12 days on skins; pressed to large format oak, 14 months maturation. The bouquet has warm spices, licorice and black fruits; superb mouthfeel, balance and texture, thanks to the shimmering tannins. Silk and satin rather than velvet.” 

97 points James Halliday The Weekend Australian Magazine

Dark cherry, red fruit, liquorice and lavender, plenty of spice, charcoal, a rosy perfume too. It’s medium to full-bodied, deep and meaty, olive tapenade, blue and black fruit, raspberry, orange zest, plenty of inky and ferrous tannin, with a dry and spicy finish of excellent length. Frankland River Shiraz is such a distinctive style, and this delivers it in spades.

96 points Gary Walsh winefront.com.au

Farvie gives a remarkable expression of Australian Shiraz and puts Western Australia back in the conversation regarding benchmarks for this variety. Only a selected soil area in the Wilson’s Pool and Powderbark blocks is earmarked for Farvie Syrah, with the vines fostered to nourish and balance the fruit to optimum levels, allowing for dry farming.
 
Swinney’s 2022 Syrah was hand-harvested from select parcels planted to a range of clones, including 470, Waldron and Jack Mann’s heritage mass-selection Syrah. In the warmer conditions of 2022, Swinney’s shade cloth played a pivotal role, creating soft, mottled light to protect the skins and lower the temperature in the bunch zone. The fruit was sorted berry-by-berry in the winery, and this year, Rob Mann increased the whole bunch component from 58% (in 2021) to 65% to further promote ethereal structure and lightness of texture while also encouraging bright, spicy aromatics. Everything was gravity-fed to a French oak vat and two demi-muids for wild fermentation. The wine spent only 12 days on skins before being basket-pressed directly to large, fine-grained, seasoned French oak, where it rested for 14 months before bottling.

Mann fosters the Farvie plot’s innate savoury, ironstone and ferrous character, pushing it to take a lead role in the wine. Importantly, no new oak is used in the Farvie Syrah. “By using no new oak, you have to think a bit harder about how to build complexity, structure and perfume in Syrah,” explains Mann. “We build that complexity through viticulture, through bunches and time on lees. I think it’s another reason our Syrah is so distinctly different.”