By Farr | Bannockburn, Victoria, Australia

Anyone who knows me knows that cool-climate Australian Pinot Noir is something I get genuinely excited about — and By Farr is the producer that started it all for me. Right before the world shut down in 2020, I built an entire Australian wine menu at the restaurant I was running. Part of the mission was to shine a light on how extraordinary Australian wine has become. But it was also a fundraiser — Australia was burning. The wildfires that swept across the country that summer were devastating, and we wanted to do something, even small, to help. Putting By Farr on that list was an easy call.

The Place

The Farr estate sits in the Moorabool Valley, tucked between Geelong and Ballarat in Victoria — about 100 kilometers southwest of Melbourne. This is one of Australia's most historically significant wine regions. Swiss settlers were planting vines here in the early 1800s, making it one of the continent's oldest viticultural areas. What makes it extraordinary for cool-climate varieties is a combination of ancient volcanic soils, continental climate, and maritime influence from Port Phillip Bay — the kind of conditions that coax nervy acidity and detail out of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay rather than power and ripeness.

The estate itself now totals 130 acres, with 36 acres under vine. The soils alone are a study in complexity: red and black volcanic loam, limestone, quartz gravel, ironstone, sandstone, and volcanic lava rock across six distinct soil types. Low fertility, excellent drainage, and small yields — it's a place that makes the vines work for every cluster.

The Family

Gary Farr has been making wine in this valley since 1978, initially as winemaker at the legendary Bannockburn Vineyards. But it was a trip to Burgundy in 1983 that changed everything. He found his way to Domaine Dujac — one of Burgundy's most revered estates — and ended up working more than a dozen harvests there over the following years. What he absorbed wasn't just technique. It was a philosophy: let the wine happen naturally. Native yeast fermentations, pigeage (hand-plunging the cap), whole-cluster fermentation, patience. Gary brought all of it back to Bannockburn — and eventually to his own land.

Gary and his wife Robyn purchased their first parcel in 1994 and planted immediately. The By Farr label was born. A second section followed in 1998 — land that had been wild and untouched for nearly 40 years, cleared of dense boxthorn and noxious weeds before the first vine went in. Gary is famously no-nonsense — "notoriously brusque but hugely admired," as his own website puts it — and that directness shows in the wines. There's no fussiness, no artifice. Just an obsessive commitment to site.

His son Nick joined the operation and formally took the reins in 2009, with Nick and his wife Cassie adding a third parcel in 2011 that connected the original two blocks. Nick grew up working alongside his father, then went out into the world — Rosemount in the Hunter Valley, Innisfail Vineyards in Bannockburn, Au Bon Climat in California, Cristom in Oregon, and yes, Domaine Dujac in Burgundy. The thread of Dujac runs through two generations of this family like a spine.

Nick was named Gourmet Traveller's Winemaker of the Year in 2020. By Farr was named The Real Review's Winery of the Year Australia in both 2022 and 2025. These are not small accolades in the Australian wine world.

The Wines

By Farr produces single-vineyard wines almost exclusively — Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Shiraz, and Viognier — all made with organic viticulture, native yeast fermentations, and a gravity-fed winery. Whole-cluster fermentation lifts the aromatics on the reds. The whites see long, cool barrel fermentations. Everything ages 18 months in barrel. There is no rush here.

Sangreal Pinot Noir is the flagship. Named for the mythical Holy Grail, it comes from the north-facing slope of the original 1994 planting — volcanic bluestone and limestone soils that consistently produce something perfumed, seamless, and hauntingly balanced. This is the wine that wine legend Len Evans called "Australia's best Pinot." Year after year, it earns that description.

Farrside Pinot Noir comes from a northeast-facing slope with darker, cooler soils. More structured and muscular than Sangreal — spice, meat, minerality, firm tannins — but with the same long, textured finish. A wine that rewards patience.

Tout Près Pinot Noir is the most intense of the three. Planted in 2001 on a densely planted hillside with three distinct soil types, it sees 100% new French oak and produces the biggest flavor profile in the lineup: dark plum, undergrowth, edgy acidity, and a tightly coiled structure. This is a wine for a decade from now.

GC Chardonnay (the initials stand for Gary Charles) is the statement white — a tribute to Gary's formative experience in Burgundy. Mineral, textural, long. A reminder that Victoria's Chardonnay revolution is real and By Farr has been leading it for years.

Why It's Here

Australian wine is having a genuine moment, and cool-climate Victoria is at the center of it. But By Farr isn't riding any wave — they've been doing this for 30 years, quietly, without compromise, in a valley most wine drinkers outside Australia couldn't find on a map. That's what makes them worth knowing.

These wines taste like a place. They taste like volcanic soil and cold mornings and two generations of people who cared more about getting it right than getting it noticed. That's exactly the kind of wine we want to put in your hands.