International Fine Wines
International Fine Wines
International Fine Wines
International Fine Wines

Swinney

The Farvie 2023s: "Incredible Focus & Precision" (Nick Ryan)
Swinney

The 2023 vintage was spectacular across Western Australia, particularly in Frankland River, and with that comes the most exciting set of Farvie wines yet. It’s been an even split between warm and cooler seasons since Farvie’s inaugural release in 2018. And while every vintage has its merits, Swinney winemaker, Rob Mann, points out that Western Australia is very consistent when it comes to quality. “My grandfather [the legendary Jack Mann] used to say it’s the only region where you can expect to have 100 great vintages a century.” Cooler years like 2019, 2021 and now 2023 give the Farvie wines a unique shape, spice and perfume. Berries and bunches were small across the board in ’23, resulting in wines of deep, inviting colour and gorgeous acidity, clarity of tannin and flavour, as well as the hallmark “ferrous, rusty nail character” Mann teases out of the gravelly ironstone ridges above the Frankland River.
 
Six years after the first release, Swinney now works exclusively with well-seasoned, large wood. “We’re not trying to make the biggest wines,” Mann explains. “We’re trying to make something subtle, complex and alluring.” Unencumbered by the flavours and tannins imparted by new oak barrels, Farvie’s success hinges almost entirely on vineyard expression. “We don't want to grow dense or heavy wines; we want to grow wines that are perfumed and elegant, that complement food and celebrate the origins and conditions of the year.” In other words, the first rule of Farvie is high-definition viticulture. The second rule is precise analogue winemaking. There is no third rule.
 
Much of Farvie’s success can be attributed to the Swinney family’s meticulous methods in the vineyard. Each member of the team—from Matt and Janelle Swinney to winemaker Rob Mann, viticulturist Rhys Thomas and everyone in between—works towards a singular goal: to craft benchmark Australian wines that stand toe-to-toe with the world’s greats. Their efforts reap exceptional rewards; the reviews and commentary leave no doubt that this is a very special set of wines.

The Wines

Swinney Farvie Grenache 2023
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Swinney Farvie Grenache 2023

Take a walk through Swinney’s untrellised Grenache bush vines, and things change about halfway down the block planted in 2004 on the estate’s upper northeast-facing hillside crest. The gravel gets deeper, and there is less clay. “That’s Farvie,” says Rob Mann. This fruit is different, too; it is more ferrous and mineral with fine, velvety tannins and so much complexity. Vines are picked over multiple passes, with only the best bunches from each vine—those sitting in the dappled light of the vine’s architecture—set aside for Farvie.

The bunches are berry sorted, then gravity-fed to French oak for natural fermentation, incorporating 30% bunches. Small bunches and berries in 2023 resulted in fruit of intense colour and concentration, so this year, the wine is 100% Grenache (previous releases have included small amounts of Mourvèdre). The wine spent 11 days on skins before being pressed to large, fine-grained, seasoned French oak vessels, where it matured for 10 months. Rob Mann was happily surprised with the depth of colour in this year’s release: “The bunches were loose, and the berries were small in 2023, so the colour is this amazing deep purple. It’s a freak of a wine,” he told us, “but a very exciting one.”


“Cherries, dark raspberries, a little balsamic, some boysenberry exoticism and ethereal spices. Pure and deeply layered. A fragrant fleshiness up front, a plushness to the mid-palate with exquisite gravelly tannins pushing through velvet sheaths to shape the wine and lengthen the finish.”
98 points, Nick Ryan, The Weekend Australian
“2023 Swinney Farvie Grenache has a stunning nose, and it is brutally firm on the palate. It slams your taste buds shut only to open them again to see if they are still alive, and then it invades again without hesitation with extremely forceful and powerful purple fruit notes… The tension on the finish is what sets this wine and its siblings apart. It is unique from these varieties’ perspective. This is one of the most impressive Farvie Grenaches to date, and it continues a run of wines that defies comprehension.”
19.5/20 points, Matthew Jukes, matthewjukes.com
“A remarkable grenache that captures much of the wine-making and viticultural philosophy with this wine sourced from the bush vine Wilson’s Pool vineyard... The oak is all fine-grained, large format season French, which did its thing for 10 months. The oak continues to play a more subordinate role with a greater percentage of whole bunches being used these days. Coupled with the earlier picking approach, it captures the coolness and crunchy freshness style that is becoming the hallmark of the style. The palate is unlike any other Australian grenache, with its precise arrow-straight acidity fired with telling accuracy to a target that eventually reveals deeper succulent fruit flavours. It is still tightly wrapped with firmness and tension. A wine of a touch of brash youthfulness and serious intensity.”
99 points, Ray Jordan, businessnews.com.au
“A serious grenache that delivers more depth and woody spice than the 'estate' stablemate, though not without the vineyard stamp of game meat savouriness, violet floral lift, sweet spices, ferrous grunt and depth of cherry and berry fruitiness. This wine feels warmer and richer but loses no finesse in the deeper realms of grenache. There's peppery elements here, too, almost a sweet, turned-earth character and more olive, sea spray and salt bush going on. Tannins sweep through the wine with succulence and feel tight and granitic. It's curiously refreshing and inky in the same frame. Stellar, is the byword.”
96 points, Mike Bennie, The Wine Companion
Swinney Farvie Grenache 2023
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$150.00
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Swinney Farvie Syrah 2023
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$150.00
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Swinney Farvie Syrah 2023

The 2023 Farvie was hand-harvested from a parcel of vines planted to Jack Mann’s heritage mass-selection Syrah. In the relatively cooler conditions of 2023, the wine is marked by a distinct Szechuan pepper, Cornas-like spice and structure, according to Mann. The fruit was sorted berry by berry in the winery, and again, in response to the cooler conditions, the bunch component was kept at a well-judged 55% (warmer years have seen up to 65% inclusion), to highlight the wine’s lightness of texture while also encouraging bright, spicy aromatics. Everything was gravity-fed to a French oak vat and demi-muids for wild fermentation. The wine spent 15 days on skins before being pressed to large, fine-grained, seasoned French oak, where it rested for 10 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. “I’m more interested in perfume, florals and personality than I am in the wine having heavy density and richness,” he explains. “By using no new oak, you have to think a bit harder about how to build complexity, structure and perfume in Syrah,” he goes on. “We build that complexity through viticulture, bunches and time on lees.”

A little reductive at first, plum skin and salted licorice, pipe tobacco and beef broth. Black olive and boot polish. Savoury, tight, earthy. With time, black and blue berries emerge, and the wine takes on a little flesh as well. But a firm, ironstone spine remains. Incredible focus and precision.”
97 points, Nick Ryan, The Weekend Australian
“A magnificent syrah with dark fruits, charry spice, licorice, leafy herbal nuance, brined olive notes and distinct minerality on show. It feels medium bodied but the concentration and slip of meaty tannin lends fullness to the pitch-perfect mid-bodied feel. Tannins keep the wine slippery, refreshing, fine tuned and draw the wine long. There's a distinction and elegance at play. Perfumed, supple, incredibly layered syrah with regional typicity at the forefront. Take a bow.”
96 points, Mike Bennie, The Wine Companion
“… This is a quiet assassin, and the tension throughout is remarkable. It is not easy to determine the grape variety on first taste, and nor should it be because the vineyard and its intense minerality speak louder than the flesh and skins of the grapes. The frictive layers of anti-fruit silently fall away to reveal a spectacular statuesque Syrah. Toned, lithe, brightly fruited and yet immovable, there is not a molecule out of place, and it stands riveted to the spot with a commanding gaze and unshakable temperament.” (The ‘+’ indicates a wine that will benefit from medium-term aging.)
20+/20 points, Matthew Jukes, matthewjukes.com
“Deep black and dark red colour with touches of purple. There is a sweet and beautiful spicy freshness and energy that bursts from the glass. This wine is about feel, and there is a saline minerality and alkaline character combining with an almost glazed shimmering sheen. It is a wine that is both detailed and expansive with layered revealing textures and flavours burning within... A remarkable wine that challenges our greatest shiraz albeit with a stylistic difference.”
99 points, Ray Jordan, businessnews.com.au
Swinney Farvie Syrah 2023
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$150.00
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Swinney Farvie Mourvedre 2023
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$150.00
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Swinney Farvie Mourvedre 2023

Winemaker Rob Mann says this is “the most audacious, emotive wine” of the trio. It’s crafted from a draconian selection of dry-grown bush-vine bunches on the same kidney-shaped patch of dirt as the vines for the Farvie Grenache in the Wilson’s Pool Vineyard. The vines here face northeast on leaner topsoil and with a higher percentage of coarse lateritic gravel; the roots have now made it down into the clay beneath. Meticulous fruit-thinning and selective hand-harvesting over multiple passes ensures Swinney achieves fruit that is as close to perfect as possible.

As was the case in 2022, bunches and berries were small, requiring a moderation in the use of whole bunches in the ferment. Where this wine can sometimes be 100%, the proportion was a well-integrated 66% this year. According to Mann, the Farvie Mourvèdre works beautifully with stem inclusion. “It helps to balance the wildness, gaminess and rustiness of the fruit while accentuating the spice element of the wine.”

The wine spent 11 days on skins before being pressed to large, fine-grained, seasoned French oak vessels, where it matured for 10 months. It’s the wildest, most intoxicating of the three Farvie wines, compared evocatively by the maker to a deep dive into a 600-page novel.

“Licorice and blackberries, cassia bark and coal dust. Black pepper spice, boudin noir, spilled viscera. Pastrami on dark rye. A metallurgic core, something firm and ferrous at its heart. Fine but forthright gravelly tannin. Unapologetically firm through the finish. A brooding beauty, a masterclass in allowing mourvèdre to tread the tightrope between the sacred and the profane.”
98 points, Nick Ryan, The Weekend Australian
“Farvie Mourvèdre is more expansive, and it is immediately convivial. This variety’s softer impact and more open-armed expression lull you into a false sense of security before the trademark Farvie minerality attacks without warning or mercy. The moisture is sucked from the palate and is replaced with stoniness and skin characters that tease and striate. These palate manoeuvres cause rivulets of juiciness to collect, which refresh the senses with clean, free-running, open and gentle red and purple fruit flavours. It is stunning…”
19.5/20 points, Matthew Jukes, matthewjukes.com
“Oh yes, I love this wine. It has a beautiful perfume and brightness evident on the nose and the palate. This is bush vine mourvedre. The structure and palate poise are exceptional. The rustic edges are slightly knocked off. Meaty chorizo but it’s subtle. These characters are trimmed. And in a year like 2023, mourvedre has less acidity. It has a slightly ironstone rusty nail thread running through it with a tense dry tannin feel in the mouth... Traces of blue fruits with a subtle licorice and tarry character. Slightly more supple and revealing than the grenache and less open and opulent tan the syrah.”
99 points, Ray Jordan, businessnews.com.au
“Black fruit, liquorice, spicy sausage, dried herb and beef dripping. It’s medium-bodied, meaty and spicy, a lively crunch to it, with fresh blackberry acidity, a grainy ironstone grip to tannin, kind of dirty but clean, with a boysenberry and new leather finish of excellent length. Quite a wine. Speaks Mataro so fluently and has no shortage of charisma. Superb.”
96 points, Gary Walsh, The Wine Front
Swinney Farvie Mourvedre 2023
 Sold Out
$150.00
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“Swinney’s Farvie wines are a tale of greatness.” James Halliday, The Weekend Australian, January 2024

“These top-tier wines, in just five vintages, have re-shaped the Australian wine landscape.” Nick Ryan, The Weekend Australian

“In 2023 the Farvie trio has done something near-impossible. They have already taken three wines at the highest level and improved their lot. It is easy to loosen the wheel nuts on a car but almost impossible to tighten them further. This Swinney has done.” Matthew Jukes, matthewjukes.com

“Swinney is in the process of making a very powerful statement about the Frankland River region via the delivery of these world-class wines.” Erin Larkin, The Wine Advocate

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