Giant Steps Yarra Valley Chardonnay 2021

Giant Steps Yarra Valley Chardonnay

Giant Steps Yarra Valley Chardonnay is an elegant, refined and delicate Chardonnay that is also surprisingly voluptuous. The nose shows classic Yarra characters of fresh melon and intense citrus flavours, underpinned with notes of marzipan and hazelnut. Crisp acidity ensures a refreshing, clean finish.

Vineyards

Producing a range of Giant Steps wines using fruit blended from across the estate vineyards has been a topic of discussion for many years. These wines were born from a desire to produce a Chardonnay and Pinot Noir of Giant Steps quality, which are expressive of the regional characteristics of the Yarra Valley rather than a single site.

Fruit for this wine is sourced from the Sexton, Tarraford, Applejack and Wombat Creek vineyards.

Vinification

Wines from the Yarra Valley range are produced using indigenous yeasts, gravity-flow winemaking and minimal fining and filtration.

All the fruit is 100% hand picked and fermented in 500 litre French oak puncheons, of which 10% are new and 90% older oak. 20% of the blend underwent malolactic conversion, and no lees stirring took place.

The wine was then aged for eight months in 10% new and 90% used French puncheons.

Producer

Giant Steps is a privately-owned Yarra Valley producer that has 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 vineyards in great years.

Head winemaker Steve Flamsteed and his team aim is to express in each wine the character of the site, grape and vintage, and this they achieve by meticulous work in the vineyard and minimum intervention in the winery.

He established Devil’s Lair Winery in the Margaret River district in the 90’s, and co-founded the Little Creatures Brewing Company (one of Australia’s best boutique beers).

After selling Devil’s Lair, he looked around Australia for an area that had a similar promise of quality as Margaret River, and settled on the Yarra to produce Giant Steps and Innocent Bystander.

Innocent Bystander’s head winemaker, Steve Flamsteed, has worked for Leeuwin Estate, the Hardy Wine Company at their Yarra Burn Winery and, before moving to Giant Steps/Innocent Bystander in 2003, was chef of his own restaurant in the King Valley.

Their winery/cellar door in Healesville is a wonderful place to visit, with the best coffee in the area, a cheese room, pizza oven and bakery, and of course wine.

Their attitude is fun, but they are very serious about their wine. For the Innocent Bystander wines, Phil and Steve work with their own vineyards and like-minded growers to select fruit from the best sites for each variety.

Giant Steps Yarra Valley Chardonnay - Hay Wines

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