Giant Steps Pinot Noir 2020, Yarra Valley Australia

Giant Steps is a privately owned, estate based, Yarra Valley grower and winemaker that has forged a reputation for delivering some of Australia’s most consistent, over-performing, single
vineyard varietal wines. The Yarra Valley range of wines is made from hand-picked fruit from the estate vineyards. Head winemaker Steve Flamsteed and his team are making some of the best wines in Australia from these sites. Their aim is to express in each wine the character of the Yarra Valley, grape and vintage, and this they achieve by meticulous work in the vineyards and minimum intervention in the winery.

Producing a range of Giant Steps wines using fruit blended from across the estate vineyards had been in discussion for many years. Fruit for this wine is sourced from the Sexton vineyard in Gruyere, the Tarraford vineyard in Tarrawarra, the Primavera vineyard in Woori Yallock, and the Applejack and Wombat Creek vineyards in Gladysdale, in the Upper Yarra Valley.

The fruit was 100% hand-picked and then cold soaked for three to four days. The wine was then fermented in 4000 litre open oak vats and stainless steel fermenters, 40% was whole bunch fermented. Rack and return took place by gravity and some light hand plunges were carried out. The wine underwent 100% malolactic fermentation and was then aged for eight months in new and used French puncheons, of which 10% were new and 90% older oak. At final blending, due to the small quantity, the team topped the tank up with a few barrels of Pinot Noir from their organic Tosq vineyard in Central Otago, which has added a touch of structure to the blend. The wine was bottled by gravity, without fining or filtration.

This wine displays perfumed cherry alongside spicy, bitter orange notes and warming mocha and cocoa. It has vibrant red and blue fruits and a lovely underlying earthiness, with white mushrooms, truffles, savoury spice and forest floor characters. An elegant wine with breadth, structure and a long, luscious finish.

Say hello to Peking duck and hoisin sauce, bacon stuffed mushrooms, dukkah crusted loin chops with watermelon salad or mushroom paté on slightly salted crackers