GIANT STEPS TARRAFORD VINEYARD CHARDONNAY 2023

Winery notes (2023 Vintage)
"2023 was a small, high-quality vintage in the Yarra Valley. The season was defined by a cool Spring, a mild growing season, cool nights, and medium to high rainfall. 2023 was one of the coolest and latest harvests on record, with our first pick starting two and a half weeks later than the previous average. The grapes in 2023 had lovely fruit concentration with bright natural acidities.

100% handpicked and whole bunch pressed. The juice was then transferred directly to barrel by gravity with no settling, taking full lees. Fermented in 500L French oak puncheons. 20% malolactic fermentation. Matured for 9 months in new and used French oak – 10% new, 90% seasoned, Mercurey, Taransaud and Dargaud & Jaeglé."

5 Stars & 97/100 Stuart Knox, The Real Review, Fabruary 2025 (2023 Vintage)
"Light straw hue. A seductive nose of white peaches, flinty reduction and a lift of creamy nougat. Driven and coiled across the tongue, a full throttle line of intense stone fruit bound up by racing acidity that accentuates a flinty mineral note. As it flows, the tension loosens and a deeper toffee note builds, all running incredibly long to the creamy and fanning finish."

97/100 Philip Rich, James Halliday Wine Companion, July 2024 (2023 Vintage)
"Planted on a cool, south-facing slope in Tarrawarra. Whole-bunch pressed and barrel fermented in seasoned French puncheons and one ceramic egg. A vibrant green gold. Immediately appealing with its aromas of stone fruits, yellow apple, some lemon confiture and a touch of brine. Chalky textured, slippery and with a certain openness but finely detailed and structured too. Grapefruit pithy on the long, beautifully balanced finish."

96/100 Campbell Mattinson, The Wine Front, August 2024 (2023 Vintage)
"I looked at this over the course of 24 hours and over that time the wine’s grapefruit characters became more and more dominant. That’s a very good thing. It also tastes of custard apples, cedar-spice, pear and white peach, a pistachio ice-cream character in there too, but the drive of grapefruit here is the wave on which everything else surfs. Tip top release. Well fruited but then dry and pebbly to close."

94/100 David Sly, Decanter (2023 Vintage)
"A bright, sunny personality is underlined by bright golden colour and lively tropical notes atop a pithy citrus body. It’s an honest reflection of site – mostly clone P58 Chardonnay planted at 100m elevation along south- and east-facing slopes on grey clay loam – with the cool location providing lively acidity that ensures good intensity and drive."