March 28, 2025
Cool Climate Chardonnay at it's finest - Giant Steps Sexton Vineyard
Giant Steps - Jazz-inspired wine
Anyone who names their winery after a John Coltrane album is our kind of man. Luckily for us, the Giant Steps Chardonnay and Pinot are also great wines, not just names.
Founded in 1997 by Phil Sexton, Giant Steps has become a benchmark for cool-climate Australian wines. Named after the iconic jazz album by John Coltrane, the winery embodies a spirit of innovation and precision. Based in Victoria’s Yarra Valley, it focuses on single-vineyard expressions, showcasing the region’s diversity. Using wild yeasts, minimal new oak, and gentle extraction, they preserve purity and terroir expression.
The Sexton Vineyard, perched on steep slopes with gravelly clay soils, yields concentrated yet finely structured Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. The cool climate and high-altitude site contribute to vibrant acidity and minerality, ensuring wines with finesse, tension, and long aging potential, hallmarks of the Giant Steps style.
The 2021 vintage (Chardonnay in the offer) benefits from a near-perfect growing season, with a cool Indian summer, well-timed rain, and no disease pressure. Chief winemaker Steve Flamsteed has been shaping Giant Steps wines for nearly two decades. While he holds the 2012, 2015, and 2017 vintages in high regard, he suggests that 2021 might just surpass them all.
The result is a Chardonnay of precision and finesse, boasting vibrant acidity, fine phenolics, and layered complexity. Citrus, white peach, and struck match notes intertwine with flinty minerality, delivering an elegant, structured wine with exceptional ageing potential—one of the standout vintages from this celebrated Yarra Valley site.
Erin Larkin of the Wine Advocate summarised it nicely for us; “My favorite wines were the Sexton Vineyard Chardonnay, for its mouthwatering intensity and caper-brine quality. […]. This is a brilliant collection overall, which most importantly shows the distinct vineyard DNA of each site in harmony with the Giant Steps house style”.
For a single vineyard expression with tops scores, The Giant Steps Sexton Chardonnay 2021 comes in at a very favourable price tag of €32.50* IB per bottle. We advise putting on a bit of John Coltrane and enjoy this top Chardonnay.
Giant Steps Sexton Chardonnay 2021
€32.50* In Bond per bottle
97 Points | Halliday Wine Companion, Philip Rich
Made mainly from WA's Gingin clone and planted in Gruyere on the same grey clay as Applejack. Whole bunches pressed into French puncheons with 20% new oak. Smells tightly wound and concentrated with aromas of ripe peach and nectarine, together with just a hint of lanolin and apple custard. Equally powerful and punchy on the palate. This has more of everything, including sprightly acid and some phenolic grip on the very long, stone-fruit pithy finish. Today, this is my pick of the 4 single-vineyard 2021 chardonnays, but who knows what will come out on top in 5 or even 10 years from now! Drinking Window: 2022 - 2028
96 Points | Wine Advocate, Erin Larkin
This is made with fruit from the Sexton Vineyard, at 200 meters in altitude (80 meters higher than Tarraford). Within the vineyard, the clones are dominated by Gingin (brought over to Victoria by Phil Sexton), followed by Dijon clones, planted in the 1990s. The 2021 Sexton Vineyard Chardonnay is composed of 60% Gingin. Twenty percent of the parcels went through malolactic fermentation—clone 277 and some of the 96. This is salty as anything—a very good thing in my book—and the sheer intensity of flavor in the mouth is mouthwatering. Preserved lemon and grapefruit pith lace the edges of the mid-palate. Very smart—it has the Yarra precision of acid and streamlined phenolics, but it brings concentration of flavor and thrilling phenolics. Super smart wine.
Giant Steps Sexton Pinot Noir 2020
€37* In Bond per bottle
95 Points | Halliday Wine Companion, Jane Faulkner
This is superbly composed and for a young pinot, it’s drinking beautifully now. Heady with florals, dark cherries and lots of earthy characters. Fuller bodied, with supple and shapely tannins, while the juicy acidity keeps this rather buoyant. Of course, if you can wait, this will also reward with extra cellar time. Drinking Window: 2021 - 2031
95 Points | The Real Review, Huon Hooke
Medium-depth red/purple hue. Lovely ripe red to dark cherry aromas, fresh and bright, already very accessible. Ample fine tannins , in balance. Beautifully made. A juicy pinot to enjoy relatively young. This gives a stack of pleasure. (One of their warmest sites, the earliest pinot harvested; 100m altitude, east facing. All MV6 clone.)
94 Points | Vinous, Josh Raynolds
Translucent ruby-red. Intensely perfumed Chambord, cherry cola, incense and potpourri aromas show fine definition and hints of woodsmoke, vanilla and succulent herbs. Blends fruity and savory character with a deft hand, offering earth-tinged red fruit, spicecake, botanical herb and floral pastille flavors that turn sweeter through the back half. Fine-grained tannins add shape to the impressively long finish, which echoes the floral and spice notes.
*Prices are accurate as of the blog publication date and may be subject to change.