Critic Score

• 93 – James Halliday, The Halliday Wine Companion

This seminal library release reflects the legendary, uncompromising era of winemaker Gary Farr at Bannockburn Vineyards, crafted with low-intervention, Burgundy-inspired techniques including traditional whole-bunch fermentation and extensive oak handling.

The 1999 growing season in Victoria's cool, marine-influenced Geelong region was defined by low yields and a temperate, stable ripening phase, driving a deep varietal intensity with distinctively high structural poise.

Pouring an appealing and healthy red hue completely free of any blue or grey tinges, the wine reveals a beautifully clean and complex bouquet layered with plum, cherry, strawberry, and delicate spice fruit over fine savoury undertones.

The medium-bodied palate builds with exceptional balance, length, and power, presenting a masterful amalgam of fruit and earth-derived characters that are seamlessly bonded by careful oak handling. Now showing more than two and a half decades of evolutionary refinement, its fine, integrated tannins frame a gracefully complex, lingering aftertaste.

Solidifying its historic status as a near-perfect representation of Farr's signature style, the definitive review from James Halliday celebrates its flawless structural harmony, noting the wine as an "appealing and healthy red" that sits on the very brink of five stars.