The 2021 season was a dream vintage! Ideally timed rainfall and ripening season temperatures tracking long-term averages, it was the cool-climate varieties that shone. Healthy yields in the Yarra Valley showed Chardonnay as the star with Pinot Noir perfumed, ethereal and outstanding.
"Flavour-wise, it was the best year we've seen for chardonnay in terms of balance. The wines are strikingly balanced and beautiful. The last time we felt this excited looking at a bracket of chardonnays was 2017. The Yarra used to be all about pinot noir, but there's a real appetite for Yarra Valley chardonnay now." Steve Flamsteed Giant Steps Winemaker
"Giant Steps wines have slipped into the realms of most anticipated releases of the year.” Gary Walsh, The Wine Front
“Steve Flamsteed is a man of many talents with a finely tuned palate, an instinctive flair for winemaking and fastidious attention to detail. This shows particularly in the stunning single-vineyard chardonnays and pinots of Giant Steps: distinctive wines that reflect their sites and glow with impeccable finesse.” Peter Forrestal, Gourmet Traveller Wine
“Winemaker Steve Flamsteed’s Chardonnays are Yarra benchmarks” Ralph Kyte-Powell, The Age