Sangreal is the oldest and most revered vineyard in the By Farr portfolio, planted in 1994 on a north-facing slope of the Moorabool Valley with a soil composition of bluestone over limestone, its surface tinged with the red ironstone that distinguishes this block from the estate’s darker volcanic soil sections. The vine rows run north to south, capturing maximum daily sun exposure and producing a wine that is consistently the most perfumed, seamlessly balanced and immediately seductive of the By Farr Pinot Noirs. Sangreal is classified as a Classified Second Growth in Langton’s Classification of Australian Wine, a recognition of the wine’s established critical and collector standing.

Sangreal is produced with 70 percent whole-bunch fermentation and aged in 70 percent new French oak for 18 months, a proportion of new wood that in lesser hands might dominate the fruit but which the Farrs have demonstrated over three decades can be absorbed entirely into the wine’s dense, perfumed structure without leaving a visible oak fingerprint. The 2023 growing season at By Farr was defined by a cool, wet spring followed by a long and gentle ripening that produced the estate’s smallest crop since 2002. The reduction in yield translated directly into a Sangreal of unusual concentration, with the Farr family describing the wine as possessing a “beautiful finesse, bright acidity and layers of fine detail.”

By Farr’s Sangreal has consistently attracted scores of 92 to 95 points from the leading critics who follow Australian Pinot Noir seriously. Wine-searcher’s aggregate for the 2023 Sangreal sits at 96/100, placing this as one of the highest-rated By Farr releases in recent years. The wine was named Winery of the Year 2025 by The Real Review. Gary Farr’s decades-long relationship with Jacques Seysses of Domaine Dujac in Morey-Saint-Denis, and Dominique Lafon of Domaine des Comtes Lafon in Meursault, has given By Farr’s winemaking an intellectual rigour and Burgundian reference point that is reflected unmistakably in the Sangreal’s aromatic profile and structural ambition.