Giant Steps Bastard Hill Vineyard Pinot Noir 2023
Style: Red Wine
Closure: Screwcap
Giant Steps Bastard Hill Vineyard Pinot Noir 2023
Camberwell
Burke Road
Camberwell VIC 3124
Australia
Producer: Giant Steps
Country: Australia
Region: Yarra Valley
Vintage: 2023
Critic Score: 97
Alcohol: 13.0%
Size: 750 ml
Drink by: 2035
Giant Steps is recognized as a global benchmark for cool climate Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. The winery was established in 1998, one year after founder Phil Sexton arrived in the Yarra Valley in search of ideal sites to produce Chardonnay and Pinot Noir of purity and finesse. The Giant Steps Single Vineyard range is produced from the most site-expressive fruit off the best vineyards in great years.
The Bastard Hill Vineyard is one of the great Chardonnay and Pinot sites in Australia. It was purchased by Giant Steps in 2022 and the 2023 vintage is their first release of the Bastard Hill Vineyard Pinot Noir.
"Smells like a rose garden with a little lavender thrown in! You'll also find aromas of sour cherries and blood oranges. Poised, elegant and persistent, this flows mellifluously across the palate. A classic Upper Yarra pinot, driven as much by its fine vein of acidity as its silken tannins." Philip Rich
The 32-acre Bastard Hill Vineyard is located at Gladysdale in the upper Yarra Valley in the sub-region of Gladysdale. It is a celebrated site planted in 1986 by respected viticulturist Ray Guerin who worked for Hardys. This high-altitude vineyard, ranging in elevation from 300-400m, has an impossibly steep slope of 32 degrees. It requires little imagination to understand why the vineyard was given its name.
"2023 was a small, high-quality vintage in the Yarra Valley. The grapes in 2023 had lovely fruit concentration with bright natural acidities. Handpicked in two parcels and chilled overnight before being 100% destemmed into small seasoned French oak vats for fermentation. Each clone was fermented and matured separately. The grapes were cold soaked for four days before fermentation began and spent between 10 – 14 days on skins, with gentle mixing throughout that time using gravity. All parcels completed malolactic fermentation and were then matured in French oak barriques (225L) – 20% new, 80% seasoned – for ten months. The wine was not moved and kept in contact with its lees before blending in December. Bottled by gravity. No fining. No filtration." Giant Steps
Expert reviews
"Made with 20% whole bunches. All D clones. Matured in barriques (20% new). A light, very bright crimson. Smells like a rose garden with a little lavender thrown in! You'll also find aromas of sour cherries and blood oranges. Poised, elegant and persistent, this flows mellifluously across the palate. A classic Upper Yarra pinot, driven as much by its fine vein of acidity as its silken tannins. Drink 2024 - 2029." Philip Rich, Halliday Wine Companion – 97 points and Special Value Wine ★
"Sourced from Block 2 a mix of MV6 and D5V12 clone. Rosebud, tea leaf, violet and lavender spray. Blueberries, blood plums and bilberries. The palate is almost slippery in the mouthfeel with blue fruits showing a rounded finish. There are river stones, white pepper and cassia bark. A Campari-like bitters on the finish. Acidity is bright and tannins dusty and fine. This is an exciting first vintage of this wine and it’s clear this will add further dimensions to the single vineyard offering from Giant Steps. Drink now and will cellar for another 3-4 years. Serve with pork terrine." Shanteh Wale, Winepilot - 95 Points
"Exotic spice woven through vibrant fruits. Some slightly earthier elements too: porcini powder, candied beets. High notes of bergamot and white pepper. It moves with a slippery momentum, plush fruit pulled along by gently buffed tannins and a precise acid line. Complex, composed and a harbinger of great things to come." Nick Ryan, The Weekend Australian - 95 points
"Light to medium crimson. Black cherry, strawberry, hint ginger aromas with roasted almond, touch vanilla notes. Attractive black cherry, strawberry, marzipan flavours, fine bitter sweet textures, underlying marzipan notes and fresh long juicy acidity. A touch of chinotto at the finish. Buoyant, supple and minerally with very good fruit density and impact. Drink now – 2030." Andrew Caillard MW, The Vintage Journal - 95 points
Awards
Special Value Wine – Halliday Wine Companion ★
In 1997 Phil Sexton arrived in the Yarra Valley in search of ideal sites to produce Chardonnay and Pinot Noir of purity and finesse. He was looking for sites with altitude, aged soils, slopes of exposure, regular rainfall and cool to cold nighttime temperatures and a gentle breeze off the protecting mountain ranges. The Giant Steps winery was established one year later in 1998.
The focus is on the production of high-quality, single-vineyard wines. The Giant Steps Single Vineyard range is produced from the most site-expressive fruit off the best vineyards in great years. Each single vineyard wine tells a story about the vineyard, vintage and variety. Production of these wines is very limited with some vineyards producing as little as 200 cases.
The single vineyards comprise the Sexton Vineyard in the Lower Yarra and the Applejack and Bastard Hill Vineyards in the Upper Yarra (both owned by Giant Steps), the Tarraford Vineyard in the Lower Yarra under long-term lease, the Primavera Vineyard in the Upper Yarra under long-term supervised contract and, up until the 2023 vintage, the Wombat Creek Vineyard owned by Hand Picked Wines. In addition, Giant Steps produces a Yarra Valley range of wines made from handpicked fruit from their estate vineyards. They are highly expressive wines, true to the regional characteristics of the Yarra Valley.
The Giant Steps wines have received global acclaim and are now recognized as a global benchmark for cool climate Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. Since 2003 Giant Steps wines have been awarded 34 trophies and over 100 gold medals at major international and domestic wine shows and has been named one of the Top 100 Wineries in the World by US Wine & Spirits Magazine for each of the last six years.
Giant Step's success is due in no small part to Steve Flamsteed, Chief Winemaker since 2003. Steve had previously worked for Leeuwin Estate (1999 – 2002) and the Hardy Wine Company at their Yarra Burn Winery in the Yarra Valley (2002 – 2003). Steve was named Gourmet Traveller Wine 'Winemaker of the Year' in 2016. "Steve Flamsteed is a man of many talents with a finely tuned palate, an instinctive flair for winemaking and fastidious attention to detail. This shows particularly in the stunning single-vineyard chardonnays and pinots of Giant Steps: distinctive wines that reflect their sites and glow with impeccable finesse." Peter Forrestal, chairman of judges, Gourmet Traveller Wine Winemaker of the Year
Melanie Chester joined Giant Steps as Head of Winemaking and Viticulture in 2021. She came to Giant Steps from Sutton Grange Winery in Central Victoria, where she was Head Winemaker. In 2014, Melanie became the youngest ever scholar selected for The Len Evans Tutorial. In 2015, she was named Young Winemaker of the Year by Gourmet Traveller Wine magazine, and in 2018, Melanie was recognized by Young Gun of Wine as the People's Choice award winner for favourite winemaker.
Giant Steps was acquired by the Jackson Family in 2020. The Jackson Family own a vast stable of wineries in California (Napa Valley, Sonoma County, Mendocino County, Monterey County, Santa Barbara and Oregon), Australia (Yarra Valley and McLaren Vale), Chile, France, Italy and South Africa.
Victoria
Victoria is home to more than 800 wineries across 21 wine regions. The regions are Alpine Valley, Beechworth, Bendigo, Geelong, Gippsland, Glenrowan, Goulburn Valley, Grampians, Heathcote, Henty, King Valley, Macedon Ranges, Mornington Peninsula, Murray Darling, Pyrenees, Rutherglen, Strathbogie Ranges, Sunbury, Swan Hill, Upper Goulburn and Yarra Valley.
Victoria's first vines were planted at Yering in the Yarra Valley in 1838. By 1868 over 3,000 acres had been planted in Victoria, establishing Victoria as the premier wine State of the day. Today, the original vineyards planted at Best's Wines are among the oldest and rarest pre-phylloxera plantings in the world.
Victoria's climate varies from hot and dry in the north to cool in the south and each wine region specialises in different varietals. For example, Rutherglen in the north is famous for its opulent Muscats and Topaque and bold reds, while the many cooler climate regions near Melbourne produce world class Chardonnay and pinot Noir. Victoria is truly a wine lover's playground.