2022 Geelong GC Cote Vineyard Chardonnay
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Tasting notes
The GC is By Farr’s top Chardonnay, the fruit for which all comes from their Côte Vineyard, fermented and aged in 50% new French oak. The resulting wine is sleek yet powerful, concentrated and bright. The nose is packed with lemon curd, smoky gunflint and lime blossom, with a subtle spiciness. On the palate, it is still tight at this youthful stage, linear and pure, yet with air delivers a crescendo of vivid fruit – white peach and Meyer lemon. There’s great dry extract here, with a savoury, nutty undertow. Driven by taut acidity through to a mouth-watering, moreish, saline finish, this is a serious Chardonnay that deservedly competes with the best in the world.
Critic scores
Average Score
Huon Hooke, The Real Review
Erin Larkin, Wine Advocate
More reviews and scores
The 2022 Chardonnay by Farr Côte Vineyard is a seriously impressive wine. It's colored by swirls of beeswax and pressed flowers, exotic nuances of saffron and freshly grated cardamon, sandalwood and matcha. It is utterly superb. The phenolics are in lockstep with the fruit, and the acidity binds it all together with invisible thread. It's seamless.
Light-mid yellow, bright, with complex aromas of bread crust, buttery croissant, oat biscuit and creamy lees nuances, the palate fresh and bright, intense and alive with lemon juice, lemon zest flavours—quite tight and reserved with a dry finish and tension that suggests it will build more complexity and richness with time. It's already an outstanding chardonnay of great flavour and refinement.
A tribute to founder Gary Charles Farr with eyebrow-raising impact for its melding of immense power and masterful finesse. Savoury cedary oak at the fore initially, before settling into lime, grapefruit, white nectarine and talc. The palate is mineral and taut with restrained power raring to unfurl. Ripe lime, white nectarine and white peach are framed by pithy, chalky phenolics and waves of lime-drenched acidity bringing cut to an oily texture. Seemingly endless length through the palate. Truly outstanding Chardonnay.
About the producer
Gary and Robyn Farr established their eponymous wine estate in the Moorabool Valley, Geelong, in 1994. Inspired by great Burgundy (and having done 10 vintages at Dujac), By Farr – now run by the next generation, Nick – crafts Pinot Noir and Chardonnay that competes with the best in the world.