By Farr Pinot Noir Tout Pres 2019

Gary Farr spent decades as the inaugural winemaker at neighbouring Bannockburn before founding By Farr with his wife Robyn in 1994; today the estate is run by son Nick, whose international pedigree includes stints with Domaine Dujac in Burgundy. Tout Près, French for “very close” or “very cosy”, takes its name directly from its viticulture: planted in 2001 at an extraordinary density of 7,300 vines per hectare across three different soil types in the Moorabool Valley, the vines are forced into fierce competition for resources, driving low yields and intense concentration. The clones planted here, a mix including 113, 114, 115, 667, 777 and MV6, have gradually adapted and cross-pollinated over two decades into what is now informally known as the “Tout Près clone”. True to Dujac-inspired tradition, the wine is fermented with 100% whole bunches in a five-tonne oak fermenter and matured entirely in new French oak from Allier, the most structured and intense treatment of any Pinot in the By Farr range.

The result is widely considered the most powerful, polarising and complex of the estate’s trio of single-vineyard Pinots: as Nick Farr himself describes it, “wild, with a mouth-watering savouriness and endless complexity.” Expect twiggy spice, menthol and red cherry giving way to smoke, cardamom, graphite and dark, stemmy char, with layered dark fruit riding atop fine, integrated tannins and real structural grip. James Suckling has scored recent vintages as high as 94 points, and it is consistently ranked among the finest Pinot Noirs made in Australia.