2024 Giant Steps Yarra Valley Chardonnay

Highly Rated
Always one of our most popular Chardonnays, this 95 point offering in 2024 from the Giant Steps team is on song once again.
4.9
Rated 4.9 out of 5 stars
8 Reviews

Price:
Sale price$39.00
Stock:
In stock, ready to ship
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Description

The Yarra Valley Chardonnay is always a killer introduction to the Giant Steps range - and the 2024 vintage is bang on form.

The fruit is drawn from across five of Giant Steps’ key sites - Sexton, Gruyere Farm, Tarraford, Applejack, and Wombat Creek - giving a complete picture of the region in one glass. A classic season brought excellent flavour ripeness and natural acidity, and winemaker Mel Chester has nailed the brief again: purity, precision, and a heap of charm.

Whole-bunch pressed, wild fermented and raised in mostly old French oak, this is a wine driven by citrus and white stone fruit, but it’s the tension and mineral drive that leave a mark. A touch of malo and lees work gives it just the right amount of flesh without dulling the zip.

In short, it’s sleek, textural, and incredibly polished. Whether you’re restocking your fridge or dipping your toe into Yarra Chardonnay for the first time, this is a no-brainer. One of the best-value cool-climate Chardonnays in the country, year in, year out.

95 points
"Smells fleshy with aromas of stone fruits, together with a little pink grapefruit and light citrus notes. It's both approachable and gentle, even as a young wine, but the balance for drinking now or cellaring in the short to medium term is absolutely spot on."
- Philip Rich (Halliday Wine Companion)

95 points - "An even split of upper and lower Yarra fruit; both estate grown and from growers. Less mlf than last year. Smells fleshy with aromas of stone fruits, together with a little pink grapefruit and light citrus notes. It's both approachable and gentle, even as a young wine, but the balance for drinking now or cellaring in the short to medium term is absolutely spot on." - Philip Rich (Halliday Wine Companion)

Customer Reviews

4.9
Rated 4.9 out of 5 stars
Based on 8 reviews
Total 5 star reviews: 7 Total 4 star reviews: 1 Total 3 star reviews: 0 Total 2 star reviews: 0 Total 1 star reviews: 0
8 reviews
  • DS
    David S.
    Verified Buyer
    2 weeks ago
    Reviewing
    2023 Giant Steps Yarra Valley Chardonnay
    Rated 4 out of 5 stars
    Best at this price

    This is the reason I’m back drinking Chardonnay. I can taste the grape and all a sundry that this great winemaker has exposed when making this superb drink.

  • J
    JT
    Verified Buyer
    8 months ago
    Reviewing
    2022 Giant Steps Yarra Valley Chardonnay
    Rated 5 out of 5 stars
    Fantastic chardonnay

    intense but elegant - just delicious

  • SM
    Simon M.
    Verified Buyer
    8 months ago
    Reviewing
    2023 Giant Steps Yarra Valley Chardonnay
    Rated 5 out of 5 stars
    Great Victorian Chardy!

    Perfect expression of a refined Victorian chardonnay, great in any season

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.

Vineyard Notes
Sourced from vineyards across the Yarra Valley. 50% sourced from the upper Yarra ranges.

Winemaking
At Giant Steps, we hand pick 100% of our fruit and fastidiously hand sorted in the vineyard . The grapes are then transported to the winery and put into the cold room over night to cool down to 4 deg C before pressing the day following. Chardonnay is always whole bunch pressed either directly to barrel or pressed to tank before immediate transfer to barrel with full solids. The wine is wild fermented in French oak puncheons, 15% of which is new while the balance is seasoned. We allow the ferments to get warm, and stir ferments daily to encourage fermentation and build texture. The level of malolactic fermentation (MLF) is dependant on season. In 2024 10% of the barrels went through MLF. Post fermentation, we sulphur and then hold the barrels in a reductive environment on full lees with no stirring until blending and bottling in November.

Price Bracket $31 to $40
Type White
Body Full Bodied
Variety Chardonnay
Country Australia
Region Yarra Valley
Australian State VIC
Feature Women in Wine
High Score
Reviewed By Halliday Wine Companion
Critic Score 95
Size 750ml
Vintage 2024
Closure Screw Cap

Giant Steps

Giant Steps is a premium Yarra Valley outfit founded by Phil Sexton and located in the township of Healesville. Beginning with the vision of original head winemaker Steve Flamsteed, Giant Steps developed an international reputation for producing some of Australia's finest examples of single vineyard Pinot Noir & Chardonnay.

In 2021 the exceptionally talented Melanie Chester joined the team as the new head of winemaking and viticulture, marking an exciting new chapter in this elite producer's story.

Every aspect of the Giant Steps process is geared towards making truly world-class wines from the vineyard to the final bottled wine. The focus is on what the Yarra does best - Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Shiraz/Syrah and Bordeaux-variety blends - and showcasing the unique terroirs of some of the region's finest vineyards.

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