Description
2025 Winery of the Year – Halliday’s Australian Wine Companion
“It’s been an outstanding winery for a long time, but the combination of energy and expertise – and no doubt plenty more besides – that winemaker Melanie Chester has brought since she arrived at the winery in November 2021 has frankly been breathtaking. Melanie is a force in Australian wine.” Campbell Mattinson, 2025 Halliday Australian Wine Companion
“Giant Steps is firmly established among the Australian wine elite. It’s long been a quality-obsessed outfit, but if anything, its sale to Jackson Family Wines in ’20 only sharpened the emphasis on quality. Single-vineyard chardonnay and pinot noir from across the upper and lower Yarra Valley are the foundation for the winery’s reputation, but really every winemaking excursion this winery takes has a habit of turning to gold.” Campbell Mattinson, for Halliday Wine Companion.
Established in 1997 in the Yarra Valley, Giant Steps has built a reputation based on expressive wines with purity and finesse. The Giant Steps wines are a direct reflection of their individual vineyard sites, located across the Yarra Valley from Tarrawarra to Gladysdale. Giant Steps was founded by wine industry pioneer Phil Sexton, who ventured from Margaret River to Yarra Valley to find the ideal site to cultivate Chardonnay and Pinot Noir of purity and finesse.
Distinctive expressions of Yarra Valley chardonnay and pinot noir take centre stage at Giant Steps. Giant Steps produce wines with delicate restraint and focused energy with single vineyard wines from Applejack, Sexton, Primavera, Bastard Hill and Tarraford Vineyards reflecting the diversity of the region. The winemaking philosophy is simple: valuing vine and soil health, low yields, and growing the best possible grapes that express their varietal characteristics and sense of place. Triple sorted, minimal intervention, gravity flow winery and an unwavering attention to detail and quality.
About this wine from the winemaker:“The 2024 vintage growing season begun with ideal flowering conditions. Ultimately, we had good fruit set which formed into moderate yields. Cool and mild through December, one of the highest rainfalls in January on record followed (150mm), then heat and fast maturity. By February we were back into the Indian summer pattern that is common in the Yarra Valley. Ideal growing conditions – warm and dry with little disease pressure – has resulted in wines with great acidity, balance, and flavour.
“100% hand-picked. 68% Pinot 32% Syrah. Fermented in small open vats with indigenous yeasts. The Syrah fermented using 100% whole bunch carbonic maceration. The Pinot Noir was destemmed and cold soaked for 4 days, and then fermented as whole berries. 6 months maturation in a combination of large format 2000lt and small format (225Lt +500Lt) French oak barrels. Bottled by gravity. No fining. No filtration.”
“Enjoy with Hibachi char-grilled octopus with a squeeze of lemon. Manchego cheese and green olive tapenade. Wood fired pizza. Miso eggplant, baked polenta with salsa verde. Pork rilletes and cornichons.”
Brand new release … review for 2023 – 95 points, Philip Rich for Halliday’s 2025 Australian Wine Companion “A vibrant crimson purple. This really is the perfect blend for the Yarra when it comes to quaffable, affordable and delicious wines that don’t require a lot of thought. With its aromas of red and black fruits, lifted spice and potpourri notes and a palate that is light to medium bodied, juicy-fruited and vibrant, this ticks all the aforementioned boxes.”
RRP $38 Our Special Price $28.99 when you buy 6 or more of this wine
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