Description
The Giant Steps Single Vineyard wines are benchmarks for the Yarra Valley.
This is the complete set of their 2025 Pinot Noirs, including the wine considered by many to be Australia's finest modern Pinot Noir - The Applejack Vineyard.
These are ultra-perfumed, powerful and complex Pinots in 2025, and great either for right now or especially for the cellar.
A true treat for any serious Pinot collector and a masterclass in the expression of Yarra Valley terroir.
- 2025 Giant Steps Applejack Vineyard Pinot Noir
- 2025 Giant Steps Primavera Vineyard Pinot Noir
- 2025 Giant Steps Bastard Hill Vineyard Pinot Noir
- 2025 Giant Steps Sexton Vineyard Pinot Noir
- 2025 Giant Steps Coal River Pinot Noir
2025 Giant Steps Applejack Vineyard Pinot Noir
Applejack is widely regarded as one of the finest Pinot Noir vineyards in Australia, and the 2025 release is another compelling chapter in its story. Planted by Ray Guerin in 1997 on dramatic east-facing slopes in Gladysdale at 300 metres, the site has a microclimate unlike anything else in the Yarra. Morning sun warms the vines gently; temperate rainforest shelters them from the afternoon heat. Grey clay loam over a black basalt volcanic base does the rest.
The 2025 season's wet winter and warm, dry spring set up a compressed but exceptional harvest, and Applejack delivered exactly what it always does when the conditions are right. One block of MV6 went in as whole bunches while the remaining clones were fully destemmed, cold soaked for four days before wild fermentation. Fifteen percent whole bunch in the final blend. Ten months in French oak barriques (15% new) on lees, bottled by gravity, no fining, no filtration.
The perfume when you put your nose in the glass is, in Philip Rich's words, off the chain. Wild strawberry, black raspberry, peony, bergamot and Chinese five spice, then forest berries, pure red cherry, crushed flowers and a push of tightly wound, next-level tannin through an impossibly long finish. Multi-faceted, dramatically structured and built for the long haul.
Rich gave it 98+ and said he wasn't sure he'd tasted a better Applejack. This is a monumental wine in anyone's language and one of Australia's modern Pinot greats.
96 points
"Stunning pinot noir. Exceptionally fragrant, dramatically well structured and then just so impressively persistent... This is top tier gear, no doubting it."
- Campbell Mattinson (The Wine Front)
98+ points
"The perfume when you put your nose in the glass is off the chain!.. It's incredibly long and will reward cellaring over the next decade or more. Not sure I've tasted a better Applejack Pinot, which is saying something."
- Philip Rich (Halliday Wine Companion)
2025 Giant Steps Primavera Vineyard Pinot Noir
Primavera is reliably the most perfumed and floral of the Giant Steps single vineyard Pinots, though this 2025 release has an extra something to it. Lou Primavera planted this small Woori Yallock vineyard in 2001, and Giant Steps has been sourcing fruit from it since 2006. At 240 metres on red clay loam with north and northeast-facing slopes, the site has a natural inclination toward fragrance and red fruit that rarely needs much encouragement.
The 2025 vintage gave it something extra. A wet winter, warm dry spring and compressed harvest produced fruit of exceptional concentration, and the wine reflects that. Each clone was fermented separately, the 115 going in as 100% whole bunch while the MV6 and G clone were fully destemmed, with a four-day cold soak before wild fermentation. Eighteen days on skins with gentle gravity mixing, then nine months in French oak barriques (18% new) on lees before blending. Bottled by gravity, no fining, no filtration.
The result is a touch more concentrated and brooding than Primavera typically shows, with damson plum, dark raspberry, crushed violet and star anise on the nose, and a richness and texture through the palate that wasn't always part of this wine's character. The freshness and perfume are still there, the tannins are persistent and finely meshed, and the whole thing is immaculate from start to finish. Our favourite Primavera to date!
95 points
"Every sip oozes confidence, class, climate and site. This is all perfume, brightness and give, within a structure, elongated context."
- Campbell Mattinson (The Wine Front)
97+ points
"A more concentrated and brooding Primavera. Aromas of damson plum, dark raspberry, lightly crushed violets and star anise. It's concentrated on the palate, too, with persistent and textured tannins that'll ensure this ages slowly and gracefully over a decade or more."
- Philip Rich (Halliday Wine Companion)
2025 Giant Steps Bastard Hill Vineyard Pinot Noir
The name tells you something about the site - steep, high, and hard-won. Bastard Hill sits at up to 400 metres in Gladysdale in the Upper Yarra Valley, on volcanic red loam, planted by viticultural legend Ray Guerin back in 1986. Giant Steps has been coaxing exceptional, ethereal Pinot out of these slopes since taking over and the 2025 is for us the best release to date.
A wet winter built up solid soil moisture before a warm, dry spring delivered near-perfect conditions through flowering and fruit set. Harvest came early and fast - a compressed vintage that rewarded the team with fruit of real concentration and quality. From a single block, handpicked and chilled overnight, fully destemmed, cold soaked for four days, fifteen days on skins with gentle gravity mixing, then ten months in French oak - 22% new - on lees without racking. Bottled by gravity, no fining, no filtration.
It's a supremely perfumed wine. Alpine fruits, rose petal, bergamot, orange peel and violet on the nose, then red cherry, boysenberry and a thread of woodsmoke and peppercorn through the palate. The tannins are silky and long, with a graphite-like frame that gives it real structure. Picked off a mountainside, and you can taste it.
96 points
"This release is remarkably pure and intense. It also has a distinct, almost defining, freshness; it tastes as though it’s been picked off the side of a mountain."
- Campbell Mattinson (The Wine Front)
97 points
"supremely perfumed wine, with aromas of alpine fruits, herbal bitters, orange peel, sandalwood and light rose petal. Medium bodied, with lovely mid-palate intensity and energy."
- Philip Rich (Halliday Wine Companion)
2025 Giant Steps Sexton Vineyard Pinot Noir
There's always a bit of grit to Sexton. Planted in 1997 on the steep north-facing slopes of the Warramate Ranges in Gruyere, it's one of the warmer, earlier-ripening sites in the Giant Steps stable. The topsoil is thin, root systems push down into shallow gravelly loams above a rocky clay base, and yields set naturally low. What comes out is concentrated, confident and a touch bolder than anything else in the single vineyard lineup.
The 2025 season started with a wet winter building solid moisture reserves, then turned warm and dry through spring with excellent conditions at flowering and fruit set. Harvest came early and moved fast. Fruit was handpicked and fully destemmed to whole berries, cold soaked for four days before wild fermentation in a mix of small oak fermenters and open stainless vats, then matured in French oak barriques (22% new) for ten months on lees. Bottled by gravity, no fining, no filtration.
It's dark, textural and expansive. Black cherry, blood plum, stewed rhubarb and a flicker of iodine and earth, with floral notes embedded deep in the fruit. Structurally firm and serious, with chewy tannins and a long, powerful finish. Philip Rich called it the most closed of the single vineyard Pinots today, and he's probably right. This one rewards patience.
96 points
"There’s no escaping the seriousness of this wine. It’s cool, spicy and complex, but it has heft and power... It’s serious in style and seriously good."
- Campbell Mattinson (The Wine Front)
96 points
"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."
- Philip Rich (Halliday Wine Companion)
2025 Giant Steps Coal River Pinot Noir
Just about as far south as you can go in Australian Pinot. Giant Steps' Coal River Valley release comes from the Nocton Vineyard in Tasmania - northeast-facing, on calcareous and Triassic sandstone soils, with long daylight hours that push the fruit into a completely different register to the Yarra releases. Darker, denser, more concentrated. Same grape, different planet.
The fruit was handpicked and shipped across Bass Strait in refrigerated conditions, arriving at the winery in great shape. Cold soaked for three to four days in open oak vats, then into French oak - 21% new, the rest seasoned - for eight months. Bottled by gravity, no fining, no filtration.
In the glass it's brooding and layered - dark cherry, blackberry, bramble, white and black pepper, with a distinctive mineral, ferrous thread that feels very much of its place. The tannins are compact and fine-grained, and while it's already expressive, this is a wine that will cellar very well for 6-10 years.
A brilliant outlier in the Giant Steps range, and one of the more exciting Tasmanian Pinots being made right now.
95+ points
"A little bit more structure, a little more bass and fruit-grunt perhaps, the same polish, the same excellence... Brilliant."
- Campbell Mattinson (The Wine Front)
95+ points
"Concentrated with dark cherry, blackberry, white and black pepper and a little crushed violet."
- Philip Rich (Halliday Wine Companion)
| Price Bracket | $51 to $100 |
| Type | Red |
| Variety | Pinot Noir |
| Country | Australia |
| Region | Yarra Valley |
| Size | 9 |
Giant Steps
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