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Giant Steps 'Sexton' Pinot Noir 2025
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- TASTING NOTE: "From the Sexton vineyard in Gruyere planted in the late '90s. 100% destemmed, 22% new wood. More black fruits than red fruits, stewed rhubarb, a little earth and iodine, too. This follows through onto the darkly fruited, compact and firmly structured palate. The most closed of the four single-vineyard wines today but one that will reward at least a decade, or more, in your cellar." 96 Points - Philip Rich, Halliday
- ABOUT THE WINE: Location: Gruyere. Planted: 1997. Elevation: 130 - 210 metres. Soil Type: Grey clay loam over granite / ironstone. Aspect: North facing slopes. Size: 30 Hectares. Located on the steep north-facing slopes of the Warramate Ranges, Sexton Vineyard sits in one of the most revered pockets of the Valley. Being well up on the range, topsoil is thin and root systems have established themselves in shallow gravelly loams above a tough, rocky clay base. Bunch yields set naturally low in this environment, resulting in intensely flavoured fruit with high skin to juice ratio. Sexton Pinot Noir responds beautifully to the site’s warmer conditions and generous sunlight, producing wines with plush fruit, confidence and power. The wines often show dark cherry, blood plum and blackberry, layered with savoury complexity and notes of bourbon, sweet spice and ripe summer cherries - like an Old Fashioned. On the palate, Sexton is textural and expansive, framed by dark, chewy tannins and a long, powerful finish. Handpicked, fermented in a combination of small oak fermenters and stainless-steel open vats. All parcels were destemmed to whole berries and cold soaked for four days before wild fermentation. Matured in French oak – 22% new, 78% seasoned – for 10 months in 225L barriques, predominately Taransaud and Dargaud & Jaeglé. The wine matured in barrique and kept in contact with its lees before blending in January. Bottled by gravity. No fining. No filtration.
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ABOUT THE PRODUCER: Giant Steps was founded by wine industry pioneer Phil Sexton, who ventured from Margaret River to Yarra Valley to find the ideal site to cultivate Chardonnay and Pinot Noir of purity and finesse. Phil found his holy grail near Gruyere in the Sexton vineyard, which he planted in 1997 on the steep slopes of the Warramate Ranges. A mad jazz fan, Phil named the winery after John Coltrane’s album and fitting metaphor “Giant Steps.” In 2003, Winemaker Steve Flamsteed came aboard, and the two set about producing a range of iconic Pinot Noirs and Chardonnays that express a profound sense of place from six finite sites in Yarra Valley. For Melanie Chester, who became Head of Winemaking and Viticulture at Giant Steps in 2021, this long-held admiration for the winery comes with an intrinsic pressure to honour the expressions and diversity of its single sites. This means keeping the winemaking tight and transparent, so that diversity of site is what you taste. For more than 20 years, Giant Steps has been advancing Australia’s reputation for cool-climate Chardonnay and Pinot Noir.
- COUNTRY: Australia
- REGION: Yarra Valley, Victoria
- VARIETAL: Pinot Noir
- WINE STYLE: Red Wine
- WINEMAKER: Melanie Chester
- CLASSIFICATION: Minimal Intervention, Sustainable Farming, Vegan
- CLOSURE: Screwcap
- ABV%: 13.8%
- SIZE: 750ml
