Description
Siblings Matt and Janelle Swinney have created something very special in the Frankland River region of the Great Southern in WA. The vineyards are part of remote and isolated 2,500 (approx. 6,000 acres) hectare grape growing and grazing property which has been the home of the Swinney family for four generations.
George John Alexander Swinney was a pioneer of the Frankland River Region and settled at ‘Franklands’ in 1922. The ‘Franklands’ property sit on ironstone gravel hill tops above the Frankland River and produce wines that have a distinctly ferrous character – a character strongly associated with the highest quality Frankland River fruit.
Bush vine viticulture is their passion and, with the right site selection and varieties, produces some of the most site-specific fruit you will see. Growing vines this way is labour intensive and requires a lot of dedication and patience – everything must be done by hand, but the lower yield and greater effort is worth the effort! Low-yielding and growing naturally without trellising, bush vines are a rarity in Western Australia and exemplify the Swinney’s long term commitment to producing wines that are a true expression of their unique sites and variety and in as natural and unforced manner as possible.
Winemaker, Rob Mann (grandson of the legendary Jack Mann—the godfather of Western Australian wine)– joined the Swinney team in 2018, whose philosophy is simple—to reflect and preserve the personality of each individual vineyard site. To achieve this, we harvest by hand—often with multiple passes over the same vine—fruit and berry sort and co-ferment where possible.
“There is no question that this vineyard and the style being crafted under one of Australia’s finest winemakers, Rob Mann, have redefined syrah and grenache. These are now the established benchmarks and should be on the buy-now list for anyone with an interest in contemporary Australian wine.” Ray Jordan, The West Australian, 2021
This is a remarkable expression of Australian Shiraz and one that puts Western Australia right back in the conversation regarding benchmarks for this variety. Where the two previous vintages were drawn exclusively from Swinney’s Powderbark vineyard, the 2020 includes one-third Syrah from Wilsons Pool, which delivered a slightly fleshier profile this year. Regardless, only a selected area of soil in both blocks is earmarked for Farvie, with the vines fostered in a way that nourishes and balances the fruit to optimum levels to allow dry farming. The vines are on a similar soil profile to the Grenache and are planted to a range of clones, including Jack Mann’s (winemaker Rob Mann’s grandfather!) heritage massale selection.
Unlike the bush-vine Grenache and Mourvèdre, the Syrah is trellised, although there are plans to plant single-stake Syrah in the future. The vines are meticulously managed, and the fruit was sorted in both the vineyard and winery. Although Frankland River is cool-climate continental, Swinney also uses shade cloth for the Shiraz on the western side, creating a soft, mottled light to protect the skins and lower the temperature in the bunch zone. Rigorous shoot positioning and bunch selection further refine the unique expression so critical to the personality of this fruit.
Sorted berry-by-berry, Rob Mann incorporated 67% whole bunches to build structure and texture while promoting bright and spicy aromatics. Everything was gravity-fed to a French oak vat and two demi-muids for wild fermentation. The wine spent only 11 days on skins before it was basket-pressed directly to fine-grained, large-format French oak, where it was raised for 11 months before bottling.
98 points, Ray Jordan, Wine Pilot “”This is a Syrah that will make the wine world sit-up and think what is possible for this variety in Frankland River ..”
97 points, Erin Larkin for Halliday’s Wine Companion “An utterly gorgeous nose awaits. Ferrous, blood plum, rust, pastrami, blackberries in summer, black cherries and mulberries too. 2020 was warm and yields were low. Across the board, berries were small. An odd observation perhaps, until you encounter the tannins. This is concentrated and textured, with fine-grit tannins that shape the palate and encase the fruit. It insists on a decant as it’s tight as a drum currently – you will miss the complete spectrum of texture if you decide to wade right in. This is a monumental wine of gravitas and poise, the flavour all clustered on the back palate. I suspect we haven’t seen the best of it yet. Drink 2022–2042”
RRP $175 Our Price $149.99 … very limited – while stocks last!
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