2024 By Farr Farrside Pinot Noir | Premium Single Vineyard Geelong Pinot Noir

🍷 BY FARR | FARRSIDE | ONE OF GEELONG'S GREAT SINGLE-VINEYARD PINOT NOIRS

The Darker, More Powerful Side of By Farr Pinot Noir

By Farr – One of Australia's Great Pinot Producers

Geelong, Victoria

RRP $117 a bottle

If Sangreal is the seductive, perfumed face of By Farr Pinot Noir, Farrside is its darker, more structured sibling.

The 2024 By Farr Farrside Pinot Noir comes from a single vineyard planted in 2001 on a northeast-facing slope, where black volcanic soils sit over limestone. Despite Farrside and Sangreal being only around 300 metres apart, the two vineyards produce remarkably different wines.

Farrside is traditionally the more masculine, savoury and structured expression.

And the warmer, even 2024 vintage has given it another dimension—deeper fruit, more flesh and power, yet still with the perfume, freshness and fine structure that define great By Farr Pinot Noir.

This is serious Australian Pinot Noir.

Tasting Notes

Expect a wonderfully complex Pinot Noir showing:

• Dark cherry
• Black plum
• Raspberry and darker forest berries
• Rose petals and florals
• Black tea
• Clove and cardamom
• Dried herbs
• Earth and forest floor
• Smoked meat
• Mineral complexity
• Fine, persistent tannins

The 2024 is deeper and more muscular than the cooler 2023, with a gorgeous mixture of red and black fruits, flowers and exotic spice.

There's generosity through the middle, but underneath sits the classic Farrside structure: firm tannins, bright acidity and a distinctly savoury, earthy personality.

It's powerful Pinot Noir, but never heavy.

One Vineyard. Five Pinot Noir Clones.

Farrside isn't built around a single clone.

The vineyard contains an impressive mix of:

114
115
777
667
MV6

That diversity helps build the complexity for which Farrside has become famous.

Different clones contribute different elements of perfume, fruit, structure and texture, giving the Farr family an extraordinary palette to work with.

The result is a Pinot Noir with layers rather than simply fruit.

Black Volcanic Soil Over Limestone

This is where the Farrside story becomes really interesting.

The vineyard sits on a northeast-facing slope, with black volcanic soil over limestone. The rows run east-west, helping protect the fruit from excessive sun exposure.

Compare that with Sangreal, only a few hundred metres away, and you begin to understand why the Farr family is so obsessed with individual vineyard expression.

Farrside's darker soils and cooler growing conditions mean the grapes are typically harvested 10–12 days later than the estate's earlier sites.

And you can taste that difference.

Farrside consistently produces Pinot with more dark fruit, meatiness, spice, minerality and tannin.

It's an extraordinary demonstration of terroir.

Farrside vs Sangreal

If you're choosing between the two, here's the easiest way to think about them:

Sangreal
Perfumed • Silky • Seductive • Floral • Seamless

Farrside
Dark • Savoury • Spicy • Structured • Powerful

Neither is necessarily "better."

They're two completely different expressions from vineyards separated by only a few hundred metres.

That's what makes tasting them side-by-side so fascinating.

And it's one of the clearest demonstrations you'll find in Australian wine of how dramatically soil, aspect and microclimate can influence Pinot Noir.

The 2024 Vintage

The 2024 vintage has given Farrside a little more muscle.

Current release notes describe it as fuller and more powerful than the cooler 2023, with dark cherry, black plum and woodsy spice sitting at the heart of the wine.

Another assessment describes the 2024 as deep and almost plush, with red, black and hedgerow fruits accompanied by flowers, clove, cardamom and hints of smoked meat.

Yet importantly, the wine hasn't lost its freshness.

That's the magic of Farrside.

Power without heaviness. Structure without brutality. Ripeness without losing perfume.

By Farr – One of Australia's Great Pinot Producers

There aren't many Australian producers whose entire reputation has become so closely linked with great Pinot Noir.

By Farr is one of them.

Gary and Nick Farr's experience with Pinot Noir stretches across decades and includes extensive winemaking experience in Burgundy.

But the brilliance of By Farr isn't that the wines taste like Burgundy.

It's that the family has applied a Burgundian obsession with site and individual vineyards to their own extraordinary piece of Geelong.

Farrside is one of the clearest examples.

Food Pairings

This is a Pinot Noir capable of handling serious food.

Perfect with:

• Roast duck
• Duck breast
• Peking duck
• Beef Wellington
• Roast quail
• Pork belly
• Venison
• Wild mushrooms
• Truffle dishes
• Comté and aged Gruyère

I'd particularly love this with duck, mushrooms and truffle.

Cellaring

The 2024 has enough fruit generosity to be extremely enjoyable young, but Farrside has always been a Pinot that rewards patience.

That combination of concentration, acidity and savoury tannin structure gives it excellent potential.

Drink now–2040+.

If drinking it young, give it plenty of air.

I'd happily decant it for 1–2 hours and serve it around 15–17°C in a large Burgundy glass.

Why We Love It

This is one of the wines that shows just how serious Geelong Pinot Noir can be.

The 2024 By Farr Farrside Pinot Noir isn't simply pretty and perfumed.

It has dark cherry, black plum, flowers, black tea, dried herbs, earth, exotic spice and savoury complexity, all wrapped around serious but beautifully integrated tannins.

Then there's the vineyard.

Planted in 2001. Five Pinot clones. Northeast-facing. Black volcanic soil over limestone. Fruit that hangs on the vine considerably longer than nearby Sangreal.

That's why Farrside tastes like Farrside.

At RRP $117, you're buying one of the benchmark single-vineyard Pinot Noirs from one of Australia's greatest Pinot-producing families.

If Sangreal is the By Farr Pinot that seduces you immediately, Farrside is the wine that makes you sit down, slow down and pay attention.

For serious Pinot Noir drinkers, the 2024 By Farr Farrside is an absolute must.