Giant Steps Yarra Valley Pinot Noir 2023

Description

2025 Winery of the Year – Halliday 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: “Our Yarra Valley range showcases the best of the Yarra Valley as a region. The row orientations and clonal selection within our vineyards, combined with influences from soil and terrain, give us an incredible palette to paint the best picture of our Yarra Valley vineyards year after year.”

“Sourced from vineyards across the Yarra Valley. 50% sourced from the upper Yarra ranges. All Giant Steps fruit is 100% hand-picked. Our grapes are then chilled overnight before processing. The Pinot is either fermented as 100% whole bunches or 100% destemmed with whole berries. The whole bunch treatments have a warm start to fermentation, with minimal mixing throughout the start of fermentation to promote carbonic maceration. These ferments are then left for up to 21 days on skins before pressing. The destemmed and whole berry batches are held cold at 4℃ for four days before the ferment is allowed to heat up and start fermentation naturally with indigenous yeasts. Cold soaked for 3 days, then allowed to warm in small open fermenters in order to kick start wild fermentation. Parcels are matured in French oak (10% new, 90% older) for eight months. Blended in October and then bottled by gravity without fining or filtration in November.

“2023 was a small, high-quality vintage in the Yarra Valley. The season was defined by a cool Spring, a mild growing season, cool nights, and lots of rainfall. 2023 was one of the coolest and latest harvests on record, with our first pick starting two and a half weeks later than previous average. The grapes in 2023 had lovely fruit concentration with bright natural acidities.”

96 points, Phillip Rich, for Halliday’s 2025 Australian Wine Companion “A bright crimson red. After a few good few swirls, aromas of ripe raspberries, black cherries, wild herbs and some crushed violets soon emerge. The palate, though, doesn’t need much coaxing, and this silken, sappy wine has excellent depth and persistence. Will be even better six to 12 months from now.”

RRP $49  *Our Price $41.99*

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