2025 Giant Steps Yarra Valley Pinot Noir

Mel Chester and the crew at Giant Steps treat their broader Yarra Valley releases with the same obsession and attention to detail as their single vineyard bottlings, proving you don't have to drop triple digits to drink exceptional wine.

Half of the fruit for the 2025 release is pulled from the cooler stretches of the Upper Yarra. Following a heavy winter soaking, a warm and dry spring set the stage for an unusually fast, compressed harvest in February and March, yielding bunches with serious weight and concentration.

Everything is hand-sorted in the vines before hitting the winery. The team ran with a third whole bunch this vintage, using a mix of warm semi-carbonic ferments and destemmed cold-soaked berries kicking off naturally. It spent eight months resting on lees in French oak barriques before being gravity-bottled with zero fining or filtration.

This is one of the all-time go-to staffies wines here at DD. The fruit is bright, tannins are fine-grained, it's pitch-perfect Yarra Pinot 101. It remains one of the smartest value buys in the country.

96 points
"Balanced acidity and tannins complete a superb and well-priced Yarra pinot to drink now and over the next three to four years. As good a Giant Steps entry point as I have tasted."
- Philip Rich (Halliday Wine Companion)

93 points
"As delicious as it is delightful. There’s a spirit of generosity to the Pinot Noir – it has Drink Me written all over it... It’s satiny, fluid and fresh; it’s charming."
- Campbell Mattinson (The Wine Front)