Farr Rising Saignee Rose 2025

The 2025 Farr Rising Saignee returns with its familiar salmon pink hue and complex oak characteristics. Playful on the nose with ripe tropical fruit, and a rounded nutty aroma to draw you back in. The palate is both soft and refreshing, to be enjoyed equally with food or without. The wine is ready to be enjoyed now or cellared to develop in years to come. Wholesaler's notes.

"Saignee", technically meaning “to bleed game meat or poultry”, refers to the way we ‘bleed’ juice for this wine. We allow the Farr Rising pinot noir fruit to sit in the tank for 2-3 hours before bleeding the free-run juice at a suitable colour for rosé production. This process concentrates the pinot ferment, but we also produce a barrel-fermented rosé. Natural barrel fermentation at cool temperatures is followed by full malolactic fermentation. The wine is placed in four- and five-year-old barrels for 10 months before being filtered and bottled. Nick Farr.

My partner picked up a bottle of this at Parade Cellars in Adelaide. I’ve not tried a Farr Rising saignée before.

Cherry, strawberry, almond, roses and hibiscus, a little spice and orange peel, and a slight lift. It’s juicy and red fruited, maybe something of a peach tea thing here, an almond creaminess to it, a light blood orange tang, fine powdery texture, with a savoury yet fleshy finish of excellent length. It’s a bolder style in a way, but has complexity and character to burn. Delightful. A rosé made with intent. A toss up between 94 and 95 points. 95 points, drink 2025-2029+, Gary Walsh, The Wine Front.