By Farr’s estate Chardonnay is the less celebrated but in many respects equally impressive half of the winery’s portfolio, produced with the same intellectual rigour and Burgundian reference points that govern the Pinot Noir range. Gary Farr’s longstanding relationship with Dominique Lafon of Domaine des Comtes Lafon in Meursault has given the By Farr Chardonnay its particular character: a wine of natural, lees-enriched texture and mineral precision that draws directly from the reductive, phenol-driven style that Lafon and contemporaries like Pierre Morey pioneered in Meursault from the 1990s onwards.

The estate Chardonnay is produced from the original house block and a younger planting, both in friable red soil over limestone leading to sandstone, similar in character to the subsoil beneath the Sangreal Pinot Noir vineyard. The wine undergoes natural fermentation in French oak barrels and malolactic fermentation in barrel, building the creamy texture and vibrant acidity that defines the By Farr Chardonnay style. The 2022 vintage in Geelong produced Chardonnay of excellent balance, with the vineyard’s protected Moorabool Valley position and moderate continental climate allowing for a measured ripening season without the stress or heat-spike events that affected some other Victorian regions.

By Farr Chardonnay consistently attracts high scores from Australian critics and has appeared in best-of-state lists across multiple vintages, though its international profile has historically lagged behind the Pinot Noirs in terms of critical exposure. Wine-searcher’s aggregate for the 2022 By Farr Chardonnay sits at 95/100, the highest aggregate for any recent vintage of this wine. With Gary Farr having been named among the most influential winemakers of his generation in Australian wine history, and By Farr having been named Winery of the Year 2025 by The Real Review, the Chardonnay benefits from the same elevated critical attention now being paid to the full range.

Pale gold with a precisely defined nose of white peach, citrus blossom, struck flint, toasted hazelnuts and a characteristically Burgundian beeswax quality. The palate is richly textural with vibrant acidity and a long, mineral-inflected finish of considerable length. A wine of Geelong individuality and Burgundian inspiration; best from 2025 through 2033.