2023 Swinney Farvie Mourvedre

99 POINTS

Ray Jordan

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. It was matured in a single 16-litre vat that has no direct oak impact. The attention to detail is demonstrated by the management of the bush vine canopies allowing attention to each bunch with the resulting uniformity of fruit. 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.

98 POINTS

Nick Ryan - The Australian

Licorice and blackberries, cassia bark and coal dust. Black pepper spice, boudin noir, spilled viscera. Pastrami on dark rye. A metalurgic 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

96 POINTS

Gary Walsh - The Wine Front

I like this, and I like the Shiraz. Tend to think both of these grape varieties do well in Frankland River. 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.

Matthew Jukes

This time, the recipe involves 66% whole bunches, and the alcohol level is 13.8%. The fruit comes from the same source as the Grenache. 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. There are discreet moments of fleshiness and controlled eroticism that work wonders from a pheromonal level. Fig notes and fresh-peeled bark abound, and it glistens with carnality. The fact that the well of profound fruit notes senesces to a single point of awesome and arresting dryness is entirely compelling. 19.5/20