Free delivery for orders over $99
Buy any 6 wines and save 10%
About The Wine
Notes courtesy Bibendum Wine Co.:
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.”
Reviews
“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
About Swinney
Based in Frankland River, Western Australia, Swinney is a family-run estate where siblings Matt and Janelle have built something truly exceptional by focusing on quality from the vineyard up. Established in 1998 on gravelly ironstone soils, the property made bold moves early—planting WA's first modern bush vines and championing Grenache and Mourvèdre in a region many considered too cool.
Today, Swinney is widely regarded as WA's finest Shiraz vineyard and one of the world's great sites for Grenache and Mourvèdre. With renowned winemaker Rob Mann (grandson of WA wine legend Jack Mann) and viticulturist Rhys Thomas on the team, the estate practices obsessive, low-yield viticulture—think multiple harvests, meticulous canopy management, and dry-farming at just one to two tonnes per acre. The winemaking is equally precise: natural fermentations, gentle extraction, and seasoned oak aging to let the site's distinctive ironstone terroir shine through.
These are wines of extraordinary purity, balance and character that reflect place above all else.
Snapshot
Region: Frankland River, WA
Country: Australia
Alcohol: 14%
Vintage: 2023
Size: 750ml
Closure: Stelvin
Varieties: Grenache
