2024 By Farr Shiraz | Premium Geelong Cool Climate Shiraz

🍷 BY FARR | A PINOT DRINKER'S SHIRAZ | ONE OF AUSTRALIA'S GREAT COOL-CLIMATE REDS

One of Australia's Great Cool-Climate Shirazes

For lovers of elegant Australian Shiraz and the great Syrahs of the Northern Rhône, this is seriously exciting.

Geelong, Victoria

RRP $117 a bottle

If you still think great Australian Shiraz has to be big, ripe and powerful, By Farr will completely reset your expectations.

The 2024 By Farr Shiraz is a magnificent expression of cool-climate Shiraz from Geelong's Moorabool Valley—intense and deeply flavoured, yet savoury, perfumed and incredibly refined.

This is Shiraz made with almost a Pinot Noir mentality: texture, perfume, detail and site expression matter more than sheer weight.

The fruit comes from the estate's original Shiraz vineyard planted in 1994, on a north-facing slope with red volcanic soils over limestone and sandstone.

For lovers of elegant Australian Shiraz and the great Syrahs of the Northern Rhône, this is seriously exciting.

Tasting Notes

Expect a wonderfully complex Shiraz showing:

• Blackberry and dark cherry
• Black plum
• Black olive and tapenade
• Violets
• Cracked black pepper
• Graphite
• Wild herbs
• Earth and savoury spice
• Subtle salinity
• Fine French oak

There's serious intensity here, but absolutely no heaviness.

The dark fruit is wrapped in graphite, black olive, spice and a fascinating saline edge, while the palate combines silkiness with firm, long, savoury tannins. Current notes on the 2024 repeatedly highlight its complexity, elegance, black-olive character and mineral/saline detail.

This is the sort of Shiraz that keeps changing in the glass.

A Pinot Drinker's Shiraz

This might be the easiest way to explain By Farr Shiraz.

It's Shiraz for Pinot Noir drinkers.

Not because it's thin or light—it isn't.

It's because the wine has the perfume, detail, texture and savoury complexity that makes great Pinot Noir so compelling.

The 2024 has more power and darker fruit than the 2023, but still retains the finesse that defines the By Farr style. One current release note describes 2024 as a fuller, more powerful expression while retaining the wine's characteristic cool-climate approach.

If your idea of great Shiraz is Clonakilla, Giaconda, Mount Langi Ghiran, Bannockburn or Northern Rhône Syrah, this belongs on your radar.

Original 1994 Plantings

The vineyard story is a huge part of this wine.

The Shiraz comes from By Farr's original 1994 vineyard, now around three decades old. The vines sit on a north-facing slope, with red volcanic soils over limestone and deep sandstone.

That combination of mature vines, cool Geelong conditions and complex soils helps explain the wine's extraordinary mixture of concentration and savoury mineral character.

This isn't generic regional Shiraz.

It is a wine with a very strong sense of place.

Shiraz + Viognier

There's another Northern Rhône connection.

A small amount of Viognier is co-fermented with the Shiraz, contributing additional perfume and texture.

Rather than making the wine overtly floral, the Viognier helps lift the aromatics and adds silkiness through the palate.

It's a technique famously associated with Côte-Rôtie, and it works brilliantly in the cool conditions of Geelong.

The result isn't an imitation of Rhône Syrah.

It's unmistakably By Farr.

The Farr Family

Few families have influenced modern premium Geelong wine more than the Farrs.

Gary Farr helped establish the reputation of the region before founding By Farr, while Nick Farr has continued to push the estate forward.

The family's approach draws on decades of experience in both Australia and Burgundy, but the wines aren't attempts to copy France.

They're about expressing their extraordinary patch of Geelong.

And while By Farr is most famous for Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, the Shiraz has quietly become one of the most compelling wines in the portfolio.

The previous 2022 By Farr Shiraz received 98 points from Huon Hooke, who praised its intensity, focus, elegance and cool-grown Shiraz character.

That's the sort of pedigree sitting behind the 2024.

Food Pairings

Perfect with:

• Roast lamb
• Chargrilled lamb cutlets
• Duck breast
• Beef fillet
• Venison
• Slow-cooked beef cheek
• Wild mushrooms
• Wood-fired meats
• Aged hard cheeses

I'd particularly love this with roast lamb, rosemary and garlic.

Cellaring

There's plenty to love now, particularly if you enjoy the perfume and energy of young cool-climate Shiraz.

But this has the concentration, tannin and balance to reward cellaring.

Drink now–2038+.

If you're opening one young, give it an hour or two in a decanter and use a large Burgundy or Syrah glass.

Why We Love It

This is Australian Shiraz for people who think they know Australian Shiraz.

Forget huge alcohol, jammy fruit and massive oak.

The 2024 By Farr Shiraz is about blackberries, violets, black olive, graphite, pepper, herbs, salinity and beautifully fine tannins. There's intensity, but also remarkable elegance. Current tasting notes repeatedly compare its finesse and savoury character with the Northern Rhône while stressing that it remains distinctly By Farr.

Then consider where it comes from: original 1994 plantings, mature vines, a north-facing Geelong vineyard and one of Australia's most highly regarded wine families.

At RRP $117, it's unquestionably premium Australian Shiraz.

But taste it alongside serious Côte-Rôtie or Hermitage and suddenly the price starts looking very different.

If you're a Pinot Noir drinker who thinks Shiraz is too big, buy this. If you're a Shiraz drinker who wants to see just how elegant and sophisticated Australian Shiraz can become, buy this too.

The 2024 By Farr Shiraz is one of the bottles that demonstrates why Geelong deserves to be in the conversation about Australia's greatest cool-climate wine regions.

👉 Dark, savoury, spicy and beautifully structured. If you love Northern Rhône Syrah or serious cool-climate Australian Shiraz, the 2024 By Farr belongs on your list.