Chardonnay “GC” Geelong 2023 – By Farr

To produce the Chardonnay “GC” Geelong By Farr the fruit was hand picked and whole-bunch pressed in the winery. The juice was chilled before being put into French oak barrels, of which 35% were new. Natural fermentation occured at cool temperatures over the next four to eight weeks, with a small amount of stirring to encourage malolactic fermentation. The wine was racked, fined and lightly filtered before bottling 11 months after picking.

The ‘GC’ Chardonnay is a tribute to Gary Charles’ decades of vine growing and winemaking experience. Fruit is sourced from three hillsides facing north, north east and east, comprising the most suitable clones, rootstocks, trellising and management for each site. The north cote is a red to brown loam with buckshot stones across the surface. The most exposed of the three, it is harvested last because of the large amount of clay, holding valuable moisture for a longer time than the other slopes. The north east cote is a continuation of buckshot until the soil becomes black and lined with limestone moving towards the bottom of the rows. A depression divides limestone from sandstone, and small amounts of sandstone are present in the grey sandy loam at the highest point of the vineyard. The east cote has black volcanic soil with fragmented limestone in one direction, and grey loam with buckshot stones in the other direction. The east cote has the least amount of clay and therefore water holding capacity, resulting in it being harvested first, despite being the coolest of the three.

Behind By Farr there are winemakers Gary Farr and son Nick. Gary has made wine in Australia (at Bannockburn) and Burgundy (he worked 10 vintages at Domaine Dujac) since the early 1980s. Today, from 33 acres in Geelong, 80 kilometres southwest of Melbourne, they make small quantities of single vineyard Pinot Noir and Chardonnay that rank with Australia’s best.