Country: Australia
Region: Yarra Valley
Vintage: 2024
Variety: Pinot Noir
Alcohol volume: 13.5%
Closure: Screwcap

Region notes
Sourced from vineyards across the Yarra Valley. 50% sourced from the upper Yarra ranges.

Food matching
Turmeric and garlic roasted chicken with couscous. Mushroom Risotto with roasted enoki. BBQ Quail with five spice, fried spring onion and garlic flakes.

Vintage notes
The 2024 vintage is a more classic Yarra season. A cool start to spring and ideal flowering conditions lead to good fruit set and moderate yields. December was cool and mild, with significant rainfall at New Years and during the first week of January giving the vines a good drink leading into the heat of February. Mid to late February was drier and warmer than is common in the Yarra, leading to great ripening conditions with no disease pressure and a quite fast vintage. In 2024, all of our Pinot and Chardonnay was ready in quick succession, leading to a compressed harvest - with the whole valley picked in the space of 3 weeks (where it normally spreads across 6 weeks). An exciting ride for our team but ultimately giving us wines with great flavour, bright acidity and balance.

Vinification
At Giant Steps, we hand pick 100% of our fruit and fastidiously hand sort in the vineyard. Pinot Noir has one of two processing pathways at Giant Steps - either fermented semi carbonic with 100% whole bunch or destemmed and fermented with whole berries. When the fruit arrives at the winery, we determine which direction to take the parcel depending on clone, vineyard, stem ripeness and flavour. Our whole bunch batches are fermented warm with minimal mixing for 14 days. The destemmed whole berry parcels are cold soaked for 3 days before we allow them to warm up and start fermentation naturally. All of our cap management is done using gravity drain and returns, allowing for gentle extraction before pressing. Each parcel is then transferred by gravity to French oak barriques for malolactic fermentation and is kept on those lees for the duration of its maturation. The parcels are blended together in Spring before bottling in December. This wine is bottled by gravity without fining or filtration. 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.

Maturation
Parcels are matured in French oak (10% new, 90% older) for eight months.

Philip Rich
95 Points
A 50/50% mix of upper and lower Yarra estate and grower fruit. 30% whole bunches. A very bright crimson purple. Pretty and complex with aromas of red cherry skins and rhubarb together with some pink peppercorn spice and a light savoury edge. More approachable than the '23. As a young wine, the medium-bodied palate is spicy, silky and long. It'll probably age well but it's so good to drink now that there's no need to bother!

Campbell Mattinson
93 Points
Classic styling here. Red and black cherried fruit flavour but with a dark, woodsy edge. Fragrant herb and wood spice top notes. Good fruit and fragrance but taut, finessed, almost filigreed. Balanced on a pinhead stuff. The aromatics here in particular feel incredibly pure and yet, at the same time, the nose is not simple and nor is it suggestive of sweetness. The control is high and yet the wine feels real. Quality wine. Beautifully turned out.

Andrew Graham
93 Points
I really liked this, even though others thought it looked a bit made and overly youthful. Bright, seamless and silken, it’s succulent and seductive, with a little mushroom on the pure, fragrant Pinot redcurrant. Love the limpid freshness. It’s only just medium and entirely pretty. Lovely, if a bit underpowered.