2017 Philippa Farr Mornington Pinot Noir

Philippa Farr

Australia / Gippsland / Philippa Farr

Vintage
A vintage where everything feel into place, goods rains, and no disease pressure, low crops that were very clean, a warm dry build up to picking, of neat, compact bunches. Picking occurred perfectly, 7 days after the birth of my second little girl!
Winemaking
The blend of clones for this wine resulted in 60% 115, and 20% MV6 with 20% 114, which were three separate ferments, allowing room to find that sweet spot at blending. Wild ferments were allowed to take hold and 25% whole bunch used to produce structure and complexity. All ferments spent close to 3 weeks on skins. Then into 30% new French oak, the wine was racked twice over 17 months before going to bottle.
Vineyard
The 2017 Mornington Pinot Noir is off a 20 year old vineyard, with predominately clone 115, and some MV6 and 114. The vineyard is south-east facing and seems to take just a few extra days to ripen than the vineyards close by, which can make all the difference with hot summers. The vines are on a bed of rich red loam over course gravel.

August, 2019

James Halliday

Halliday Wine Companion 2020

96 points

The perfect vintage got underway 7 days after Pip gave birth to her second daughter. Three clonal blocks are wild-fermented with 25% whole bunches, each spending 30 days on skins and 18 months in French oak (30% new). It isn't surprising that this should be a very, very powerful and complex pinot, forest floor the platform on which spicy, savoury dark fruits and briary whole bunch characters should take control.

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About Philippa Farr

As a member of one of the great winemaking families of present-day Australian wine, Philippa had an
 appreciation for fine wine from an early age. The story of her own label, which features single-vineyard Pinot Noir from Gippsland and Mornington Peninsula, began with her falling in love in Gippsland, which in turn reignited her passion for winemaking. Philippa kicked off her eponymous, winemaking venture with what Max Allen called "a cracking 2012 Gippsland Pinot Noir". "As debut wines go, this takes the cake. It’s a stunner," wrote fellow wine writer Campbell Mattinson. This same wine critic followed up that review a year later with this: "The 2012 was terrific; so too is this 2013. It’s one of those wines," Mattinson continued, "(that) drags you into its dark, complex world from the first sip. In short, its quality is obvious."

About

In 2003, Philippa Farr immersed herself in vintage life at
 Brokenwood. She returned to the great Hunter Valley winery after the first year of a Bachelor of Wine Science, working full time through vintages 2004 and
 2005 while completing her studies part time.
Over the years she’s chalked up further vintages at Bellvale, Bouzeron, Domaine Dujac, By Farr and
 Purple Hen. Then, four years after settling down in Gippsland, she seized the opportunity to make her first Gippsland Pinot Noir. She’s never looked back, and nor have those who've had the pleasure of tasting another set of exceptional Farr Pinots.