2023 Swinney Farvie Mourvedre

99 POINTS

Ray Jordan - Winepilot

Oh yes, I love this wine. It has a beautiful perfume and brightness evident on the nose and the palate. This is bush vine Mourvèdre. 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 23, Mourvèdre 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, the wine is lightly more supple and revealing than the Grenache yet less open and opulent than 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

97 POINTS

Erin Larkin - Robert Parker Wine Advocate

I am so glad that the Farvie range now—since the inaugural vintage in 2021—includes a Mourvèdre. The vineyard is a special place in Frankland River, the bush vines bearing against the seasons atop a rolling slope, set among a wider vineyard area. This tiny pocket accounts for just 2% of the Swinney vineyard holdings, tiny when you consider that. The 2023 Farvie Mourvèdre is less sweetly fruited than the Grenache tasted alongside, with a core of earthy, pure fruit, wrapped by a sheath of grippy, finely milled tannins. This is Mourvèdre every day of the week, yet it has grace and elegance rarely seen in the variety in Australia. It's a significant wine in many respects, not the least will be its long aging potential and its distinct personality. It's very good indeed and very different in each set of vintage conditions. Aside from the tannins, which I absolutely love in every way, the perfume is the most captivating bit about this wine—wet garden roses, petrichor, summer berries, red gravel and dry incense spice—and the perfume permeates the finish. I like it more and more the longer it sits in the glass. 13.9% alcohol, sealed under screw cap.

97 POINTS

Cassandra Charlick - Winepilot

66% whole bunch, wild ferment, 10 months in large-format seasoned oak. Gosh, there is so much vibrancy and concentration on the nose; this is alive. Some wines have so much energy that they encourage you to get up and dance, shout, sing…whatever the impulse may be. Plush fruit reigns, but there’s a meaty undercurrent and a hint of robust wilderness in the mix. Think bresaola studded with pepper berries. Saturated sour cherries, boysenberry, salt bush and a grown-up Ribena juiciness is foiled with red earth, burnt toffee and a bloody minerality seeping through on the finish. The palate offers up an intense fruit sweetness, balanced out with crushed stone minerality, an umami dried sea kelp note and oodles of black soil, tea leaf tannins. This is Mourvèdre, after all. There’s freshness and intensity, with animation, vibrancy, and yet a dig-your-heels in solidity. A percussive and electric wine with solid foundations. Exciting.

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.

94 POINTS

Mike Bennie - Halliday Wine Companion

Deep and rich with a distinct charisma and flair for the variety. Dark chocolate dust on inky plum fruit characters, black olive, char and sooty spices with a touch of fragrant dried herbs and woodiness shot through. It feels expansive on the palate, warm and full, perhaps a touch breathy but forgivable in its potency and grunt. A very serious expression emerges.