2024 By Farr Sangreal Pinot Noir | Iconic Single Vineyard Geelong Pinot Noir

🍷 BY FARR | SANGREAL | THE OLDEST VINEYARD & ONE OF THE JEWELS OF THE ESTATE

The Heart and Soul of By Farr

One of Australia's Benchmark Pinot Noirs

There are certain Australian Pinot Noirs that every serious Pinot lover should experience.

By Farr Sangreal is one of them.

Geelong, Victoria

RRP $145 a bottle

There are certain Australian Pinot Noirs that every serious Pinot lover should experience.

By Farr Sangreal is one of them.

The 2024 Sangreal Pinot Noir comes from the Farr family's oldest vineyard, planted in 1994, and has become one of the defining wines of this extraordinary Geelong estate.

By Farr describes Sangreal as the backbone of its wines, and the characteristics that return vintage after vintage are perfume, seduction, seamless balance and remarkable drinkability.

This isn't Pinot Noir trying to impress you with sheer power.

It's about perfume, texture, complexity and an extraordinary sense of place.

At RRP $145, you're entering the territory of Australia's truly serious Pinot Noirs.

Tasting Notes

The 2024 is wonderfully seductive, showing layers of:

• Red cherry
• Strawberry
• Pomegranate
• Dark berries
• Rose petals and florals
• Whole-bunch spice
• Earth and forest floor
• Subtle game
• Fine French oak
• Silky, persistent tannins

The warmer 2024 vintage has produced a slightly fuller and more powerful Sangreal than the cooler 2023, with deeper dark-fruited intensity while retaining the vineyard's trademark perfume and seamless texture.

There's flesh and concentration, but the wine remains wonderfully composed.

Perfumed. Silky. Savoury. Complex.

And incredibly difficult to stop drinking.

By Farr's Oldest Vineyard

This is where Sangreal becomes particularly special.

The vineyard was planted in 1994, making it the oldest vineyard on the By Farr estate.

It lies on a north-facing slope, with an unusual soil profile of bluestone and overlying limestone, with red ironstone colouring the surface. That's quite different from many of By Farr's other vineyards, which are dominated by black volcanic soils and limestone.

The rows run north–south and receive excellent sunlight throughout the day.

Sangreal is consequently the first of the By Farr Pinot vineyards to be harvested, and the site consistently produces one of the family's most perfumed and seductive wines.

This is genuine single-vineyard Pinot Noir with a very clear identity.

The 'Sangreal Clone'

There's another fascinating part of the story.

The vineyard was originally planted to Pinot Noir clones 114 and 115.

But after more than three decades on this particular site, the Farr family believes those vines have evolved and mutated sufficiently that they now effectively regard the material as their own "Sangreal clone."

Whether you look at that scientifically or romantically, the important point is what ends up in the glass.

Sangreal tastes unmistakably like Sangreal.

It has a distinctive combination of red fruit, perfume, spice, whole-bunch character, acidity and texture that has become remarkably consistent across vintages.

Serious Pinot Noir Winemaking

Sangreal isn't made to be a simple, fruit-driven Pinot.

The winemaking is deliberately structured to build perfume, texture and longevity.

The 2024 is reported as using around 70% whole bunches, followed by approximately 18 months maturation in French oak, around 70% new, before being bottled unfined and unfiltered.

That's a significant amount of new oak.

But great Pinot isn't about how much oak is used—it's about whether you can see the seams.

And that's where Sangreal excels.

Fruit, stalk, acidity, tannin and oak come together into something remarkably seamless.

The Burgundy Connection

You can't talk about By Farr without mentioning Burgundy.

The Farr family's experience in Burgundy has had a profound influence on their understanding of Pinot Noir.

But Sangreal isn't an attempt to make Burgundy in Geelong.

That's missing the point.

What Gary and Nick Farr have taken from Burgundy is the importance of site, individual vineyards, vine material, texture and minimal interference.

Sangreal is the result of applying those ideas to their own extraordinary piece of Victoria.

The result is unmistakably Australian—and unmistakably By Farr.

One of Australia's Benchmark Pinot Noirs

By Farr has reached a point where its Pinot Noirs deserve to be discussed alongside the finest produced anywhere in Australia.

And Sangreal sits right at the heart of that reputation.

The wine comes from the estate's oldest vines and has developed a remarkable consistency, with the vineyard proving dependable in difficult years and exceptional in great vintages. By Farr itself calls the site the backbone of its wines.

That combination of history, site and consistency is what separates genuinely great vineyards from merely good ones.

Food Pairings

This deserves something special:

• Roast duck
• Peking duck
• Duck breast with cherries
• Roast quail
• Truffle and mushroom risotto
• Beef Wellington
• Pork belly
• Wild mushrooms
• Comté
• Soft washed-rind cheeses

For me, roast duck and Sangreal would be very difficult to beat.

Cellaring

There's enormous pleasure in the 2024 already.

The perfume and fruit are seductive, but underneath sits the concentration, acidity and silky tannin structure required for serious ageing.

Drink now–2040+.

If you're opening one young, I'd give it an hour in a decanter and serve it in the biggest Burgundy glass you own.

Don't serve it too warm—around 15–17°C is ideal.

Why We Love It

This is the kind of Pinot Noir that explains why people become obsessed with Pinot Noir.

The 2024 By Farr Sangreal isn't about enormous fruit or obvious winemaking.

It's about how everything comes together.

Red cherries. Pomegranate. Flowers. Earth. Whole-bunch spice. Oak. Acidity. Silky tannins.

Nothing dominates.

The vineyard was planted in 1994, it's the oldest on the Farr estate, and the family considers Sangreal fundamental to the identity of By Farr.

And the 2024 looks particularly compelling, with the warmer season giving the normally ethereal Sangreal a little more flesh and power while preserving its extraordinary perfume and seamlessness.

At RRP $145, this isn't inexpensive Pinot Noir.

But when you start comparing it with Australia's greatest Pinot Noirs—or with serious Burgundy—the equation changes dramatically.

If you love By Farr, Sangreal is essential. If you love great Pinot Noir, Sangreal is a wine you need to experience.

The 2024 By Farr Sangreal Pinot Noir isn't simply one of Geelong's great wines. It's one of Australia's benchmark expressions of Pinot Noir.