Giant Steps Sexton Vineyard Chardonnay Yarra Valley, Australia,2018

Giant Steps is a privately-owned Yarra Valley estate founded by Phil Sexton in 1998. It has since forged a reputation for making some of the Yarra Valley‘s most consistently exciting wines from estate-owned vineyards. The Giant Steps Single Vineyard wines are produced from their best vineyard sites in great years. Head winemaker Steve Flamsteed and his team’s aim is to express the character of the vineyard, grape and vintage in each wine. They achieve this through meticulous work in the vineyard and minimum intervention in the winery.

The ‘Sexton’ vineyard is run by the founder of Giant Steps, Phil Sexton. Situated next to Coldstream Hills and Yarra Yering, it lies in the heart of the Yarra Valley, where poor soils result in miniscule yields, leading in turn to intense and concentrated wines.

On the nose, this wine has flinty, wet slate aromas with notes of melon and honeysuckle. The palate is pure and precise with a steely character on the long finish.

"Giant Steps owner Phil Sexton's self-named vineyard soars once again in this beautifully textured Chardonnay that is all at once modern and timeless. Take a deep dive into a nose of honeysuckle, lime leaf, salted cashew, waxy lemon and stony minerals. Then let the liquid roll around on your tongue, pricking it gently with crystalline acidity. Complex and ageworthy yet totally approachable now, this is the face of today's Aussie Chardonnay, and it's a mighty fine one. Drink now–2029 and likely beyond." 94 points(2018 vintage), Wine Enthusiast

"There is incredible depth of quality in Yarra Chardonnay: Mount Mary, Mac Forbes, TarraWarra, Yabby Lake, Yarra Yering, Soumah, Santolin… Giant Steps vinifies all its four fab single-vineyard wines the same way (wild-yeast, 20% new puncheons, lees stirring, eight months’ ageing). This is broad, juicy and rich with peach and orange flavours, direct acidity and creamy oak spice." 93 points(2018 vintage), Decanter