Giant Steps Yarra Valley Chardonnay 2022

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95/100 – James Halliday Wine Companion
94/100 – Campbell Mattinson, The Wine Front

“An even split of upper and lower Yarra fruit. Whole-bunched pressed and wild fermented in 15% new French puncheons. Around 5% mlf. A light, bright green gold. Pure fruited with an attractive nose of just ripened orchard and stone fruits, pink grapefruit and orange blossom. A hint of matchstick and just-baked ginger snaps. Concentrated and lithe at the same time, Giant Step’s calling card is just as good, if not better than the super 2021 release.” – Phillip Rich, Halliday Wine Companion

“A blend of the individual vineyard releases – Sexton, Tarraford, Applejack, Primavera and Wombat Creek – with a little more input besides. It gets “the Rolls Royce treatment” and then it’s blended to become this. Grilled almonds and peaches with wet stones and runs of citrus. Beautiful (creamy) texture, flavour and composure. The elegance of this, the exotic wet stone notes, the smoky push on the finish. It’s all pretty much into wow territory. This is a gorgeous release, essence of chardonnay, scores schmores, buy and drink.” – Campbell Mattinson, The Wine Front

Vintage Note: 2022 was a high quality but low yielding season in the Yarra Valley. A very cool, wet and stormy spring resulted in some challenging conditions around flowering and hence very poor fruit set. The season proceeded to dry out into December, with a dry and warm Christmas period. This exacerbated the already small bunch weights, leading to bunches that weighed up to 40% lower than normal years. The mild summer meant long, slow ripening and flavour concentration throughout summer, with some well-placed rain in January refreshing the vineyards at just the right time. The strong canopies and low fruit load meant we sailed neatly into picking with very little disease or weather pressure affecting our picking decisions. The grapes from 2022 came off the vine with lovely concentration and flavour and great natural acidity.

Winemaking Notes: The Chardonnay grapes are chilled overnight before they are whole bunch pressed the following morning. The juice is immediately transferred into 500L French oak puncheons. 15% of the oak is new, while the remaining 85% is seasoned. The juice is fermented naturally using indigenous yeast over 10 days, finishing with lots of stirring at the end of ferment. Around 10% of the batches go through malolactic fermentation. The wines are then sulphured and kept on lees in barrel until October, when they are blended and bottled.

Alcohol: 12.5%

Variety: Chardonnay

Region: Yarra Valley, Victoria, Australia

ABOUT THE PRODUCER:

Giant Step’s wines are a homage to the Yarra Valley’s cool climate, and our celebrated vineyards of Sexton, Applejack, Bastard Hill, Tarraford, Primavera and Wombat Creek produce wines with delicate restraint and focused energy.

From the complex and earthy Applejack or the floral and perfumed Primavera Pinot Noir to the confident Sexton Chardonnay or new linear Bastard Hill Chardonnay, each of our wines express the best of their site and the vintage.

Phil had planted the Sexton site at Gruyere in 1997, but when they got hold of fruit from the Tarraford Vineyard and then Applejack and Primavera Vineyards in the upper Yarra, that’s when things got really interesting as they begun to develop the single vineyard wines.

In 2021, Melanie Chester joined the team as Head of Winemaking and Viticulture to continue the journey to produce wines from distinctive vineyards that showcase the very best of the Yarra Valley region. From the first vintage over 20 years ago, Giant Steps is proud to be known as one of Australia’s best producers of single vineyard Chardonnay and Pinot Noir.