#6 Top Wineries of Australia 2020 ~ The Real Review
Huon Hooke - "...A most impressive wine, quite correctly entitled syrah... The palate is firm and taut and elegantly-structured but finished with tight tannins and long persistence. The tannins are fine, firm and supple, the balance of the wine quite outstanding. It combines great elegance and fineness of structure with tremendous depth, intensity, and length....Very deep, dark red/purple colour, with a strongly reductive bouquet that also shows masses of spices - pepper uppermost."
Ray Jordan - "A jaw-dropping, ground-breaking syrah from Frankland River. This is not the sweet fruit Aussie shiraz or syrah but more a savoury, grainy style more associated with the Rhone in France. Fine, firm tannins run deep and the oak has been expertly and subtly applied. But it is the way the fruit expresses that strikes as different and exciting."
Erin Larkin "The colour is an outrageous deep magenta hue, promising the world. The nose is a little restrained at this stage, but is showing sarsaparilla, mulberry, black pepper, raspberry and tight, lightly spiced French oak. The palate gives everything the nose promises and more – the tannins working to lengthen and extend the already elegant and focused fruit. This is super fine, concentrated, long and powerful; the 55% whole-bunch lending an extra layer of spice and texture. The acidity is perfectly balanced with the exuberance of the fruit, and in combination with the masterful handling of tannins, this wine is weightlessly suspended in perfect tension. Deeper and darker than the grenache, and impossible to pit above or below. An astoundingly alluring pair of wines, and an authoritative first release."
Nick Ryan, The Australian Financial Review "This might just be the best Shiraz I’ve seen out of Western Australia. It is a finely etched, tightly wound and mineral-laced wine that redefines the variety in the west. It substitutes the variety’s usual flesh and opulence for a more finely hewn shape, switching out heft for suppleness and sinewy grace without ever sacrificing power and drive. Black fruits, roasted spices, dark plums and a palpable sense of the ironstone that sits beneath the vineyard, this, like the grenache, is a masterclass in tension; a wine that requires you to come to it, rather than one that explodes from the bottle intent on seduction through sweet fruit."
Huon Hooke "To say the latest crop of Mann-made Swinney wines is outstanding would be to damn with faint praise ... It’s a while since I’ve been so impressed by a crop of new wines".
Matthew Jukes "Just tasted one of the most remarkable new portfolio releases of the year. The 2018 reds and 2019 Riesling are all sensational, and the 2018 Farvie (Grenache), set for release in 2020, is one of the most remarkable and exquisite wines made from this great grape that I have ever tasted. Winemaker Rob Mann’s return to WA has collided with Matt Swinney’s amazing viticulture and the results are breathtaking."
Ray Jordan "It is impossible to overstate the significance of two wines [The Swinney Farvie Syrah 2018 and Farvie Grenache 2018]. They represent a defining moment in WA [Western Australian] Wine. The results are unlike anything seen before in WA and will redefine how Frankland River wine is perceived."
'Farvie' is the Swinney Vineyards premium label launched in 2020. Swinney made its debut in Halliday’s Australian Wine Companion 2015 with a five-star rating and was ranked in the top ten of best new wineries. The quality of the fruit produced from the Swinney vineyards has attracted significant demand from premium wine producers, but it was not until 2012 that a very small quantity of the first Swinney wines was released.
The fruit for Farvie wine is selectively sourced from particular blocks in Swinney's vineyards to produce wines of impressive purity, concentration, elegance, texture and distinctive terroir.
The Swinney family have been the go-to growers for many years supplying grapes to some of the most famous wines in Western Australia. Since 2012, they have kept back some of the best parcels of fruit and produced premium wines under their own label....and what a success its been with many awards and successive high scores from Australia's wine critics since.
The Great Southern wine region is in Western Australia. It comprises a rectangle 200 kilometres from east to west and over 100 kilometres from north to south, and is Australia's largest wine region. The Great Southern region has five nominated subregions for wine: the Porongurups, Mount Barker, Albany, Denmark and Frankland River. The vineyards spread throughout the area are known for the production of high-quality vines that have significant variations of terroir and climate. The region is the coolest of Western Australia’s viticultural areas; with a similar maritime influenced Mediterranean climate to Margaret River although with slightly less rainfall. This diverse region is known for Riesling, Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot noir, Shiraz, and Malbec.
