Vintage Character The 2024 Giant Steps Pinot Noir expresses a Yarra Valley season that moved from a cool opening to a brisk, warm finish. Ideal flowering followed the cool spring and set a moderate crop. Rain at New Year replenished moisture before February became drier and warmer, allowing healthy fruit to ripen rapidly. Giant Steps reports that Pinot Noir and Chardonnay reached picking condition close together, narrowing the usual valley harvest from about six weeks to three, with picking in February and March. This timing supports a wine with ripe flavour, bright acidity and a clean sense of balance rather than heaviness.
Tasting Profile & Food Pairing This is the regional Yarra Valley Pinot Noir, drawn from vineyards across the valley, with roughly half the fruit from the Upper Yarra ranges, at 13.5% alcohol. That broad sourcing gives the wine a different purpose from a single-site Pinot: it brings different exposures into one accessible portrait. Red cherry, raspberry and a touch of forest floor are the cues, and the real attraction is the way supple fruit meets a fresh, fine-lined finish. Violet and clove add detail. Gentle tannin makes it adaptable with roast chicken, mushroom risotto or grilled quail. Serve lightly cool.
Winery Background Phil Sexton founded Giant Steps in 1997 to pursue Chardonnay and Pinot Noir in the Yarra Valley, and Melanie Chester now leads the winemaking. The producer's 2024 technical sheet describes hand picking and sorting, then different fermentation paths for different Pinot parcels, selected according to fruit and stem condition. Gravity-assisted handling and French oak maturation follow before blending. Those decisions matter because the regional wine should integrate vineyard differences without losing their lift. The 2024 result is a practical introduction to the estate: a multi-site Pinot shaped by a compressed, healthy season and made with deliberate restraint.