Aka Giant Wombat. It’s worth going to the Giant Steps website just to see the pic of the Wombat Creek Vineyard – here – and how it’s quite literally cut out of forest. As a general rule with the Giant Steps single vineyard Pinot Noir “We try to do as much whole bunch as we can get away with. Wombat and Primavera are on red soil. Applejack and Sexton are on grey soil. Wombat (MV6) 2021 is entirely whole bunch/the rest are roughly 50/50.” This release is taut, spicy, herbal and sure. Wonderfully savoury and wonderfully good. Fruit pushes through the savouriness without ever taking over. Perfume, this is aflame with it. Tannin, in sheets, inscribed with the finest handwritten flavours. A wonderful wine, pure Upper Yarra, detail and texture, perfume and flavour, mouthwatering red cherry and cranberry fruit with salty, silty tannin and fragrant herbs/flowers wafting over. The power of the light touch.

This seemed ultra-reserved in the context of the Tarraford, which I’d tasted immediately prior.
Citrus here and red apple, with pear, the citrus both pure juice and preserved. Oak spice, and custard powder characters, are so well threaded, ginger nut/biscuit aspects rising through the finish. World apart from the Tarraford; perfect pigeon pair. The longer it sat in the glass the more those complex, juicy, apple-like characters blossomed, marzipan with them, nectarines squeezed with salted lemons. This is a wine of tight, complex power, the fruit pure and commanding, the finish taut but persistent.

Another 500 metres further up the hill, so to speak.
The 2021 Giant Steps single vineyard chardonnays mean business. They have the reserve of the confident. This seemed yet more reserved than the Sexton, which itself was more reserved than the Tarraford, and yet like them both it feels commanding. Stones, green pineapple, musk and poached red apple flavours, almost and pretty much effectively into quince, with grippy texture even as it pushes (confidently) through the finish. There is the influence of florals here, the influence of pear, the influence of crushed woodsy spices. This needs time but wow what a wine.

Vines here are nearly 40 years old. It’s the highest, coolest and most southerly of the single vineyard chardonnay sites.
Great push of musk, fennel and red apple flavour before toasted peach and vanilla characters power through. Incredibly intricate wine, perfumed, powerful, long, textural/grippy, gently creamy, and then when you think it’s finished, a peppery/herbal spray to the aftertaste. You can see the oak on this but it absolutely carries it; of all the 2021 releases it’s the one most in need of extra time for the sake of pure oak integration. But we have another super wine on our hands here.

This vintage, 77% Cabernet Sauvignon is supported by Cabernet Franc, Merlot and Petit Verdot to soften and lend extra layers of rich fruit. Intense blueberry and violet aromas are joined by savoury wild herb notes, surely contributed by the surrounding madrone and bay laurels in the vineyard. There is plenty of black and blue fruit, rich loamy earth tones and powerful, sculpted tannins framed by firm acidity. Finishes long and minerally. Calls for short rib or seasoned, grilled ribeye, nicely salted.

From old, unirrigated vines at Hickinbotham, in Clarendon.The only cuvée produced outside of Yangarra Estate. Destemmed, crushed and tipped into a ceramic egg where it remained on skins for 170 days. Gorgeous. Pinosity in spades. Noble bitterness. Lavender and white pepper. Pink grapefruit pulp and sapid, sour-cherry accents. Like the most glorious amaro with a slice of Sicilian orange, this plays a finessed card of consummate elegance, racy length, crunchy saline tannins and latent power. Brethren to Ovitelli in terms of shape, if not a bit looser and more flamboyant at the seams. A belly dancer in a souk of carnal desire. Scintillating, uber-aromatic grenache.

The Applejack Vineyard is planted across the hill, at the same altitude as the Primavera Vineyard on gray clay over mudstone, and picked within a few days of that site. The 2021 Applejack Vineyard Pinot Noir included 50% whole bunch in the mix and is a blend of seven different clones. This shows wonderful clarity and poise—it is precise and layered with energy and life. The acid pulses through the phenolic texture in the mouth. It was originally a sparkling vineyard, down the hill from Wombat Creek, situated in an eastern-facing bowl that captures the morning sunlight. Mel Chester (head of winemaking and viticulture) talks about the smell of the tea trees in the vineyard, explaining that "there's always a couple of Wedgetail eagles circling, it's a magic place." The evocative description of the vineyard carries through into the wine, which shows a satisfying, delicious resolution of plump ripe fruit and beautifully resolved tannin. Balance 101.

The 2002 Le Desir is made from 53% Merlot, 41% Cabernet Franc, 5% Cabernet Sauvignon, and 1% Malbec. Medium to deep garnet-brick colored, it slowly unfurls to reveal notes of baked red and black cherries, dried mulberries, and stewed plums, plus suggestions of sauteed herbs, damp soil, cast-iron pan, and Indian spices. Medium to full-bodied, the palate delivers evolving red and black fruits with lifted herbal sparks and a soft texture, finishing long and savory.

This is from a 2 hectare block of dry-farmed bush vine Grenache planted in 1946 on Maslin Sands. The grapes are destemmed and fermented on skins over the whole autumn (158 days post-ferment maceraton) in ceramic eggs. The juice is then drained and matured in the eggs for another 5 months – no pressings are used. This has an intriguing nose that initially reminds me of Barolo. It’s fresh, dry, dusty and a bit spicy, with some rose petal, orange peel and cherry notes, as well as a slight acid lift. The palate is dry, grippy and grainy, but with nice fresh red cherry and plum fruit, as well as a twist of raspberry and tar. It’s very textural: a touch of silkiness, but also some pepper spice and then some grainy, drying tannins with a hessian-like texture. Good acidity, allied to firm but well managed tannins give this real grip: the Barolo analogy stands. It’s youthful and quite profound, and I think it will age in very interesting ways. I’ve not had an Australian wine like this, but I still think it communicates its place very well, albeit in quite a stern way as yet.

Dark cherry, plum, a fair amount of spice, and also perfume of thyme, rosemary, mint and dried roses. It’s silky, with fine-grained tannin grip, cool almost mentholated feel here, fresh too, blood plum, rhubarb, and dried herb aromatics, and a graphite character on a long finish with some orange rind and baked plum. Really like this. A whole lot of character.

From one of two old blocks of Merlot on the property (the other goes into Cardinale), the 2019 W.S. Keyes Merlot is bright and lively, with scents of raspberries and cherries on the nose. On the palate, it's full-bodied, rich and structured, with a creamy-velvety mouthfeel and a long, mocha-tinged finish. Blessed with layers of softly dusty tannins, this is a fine and elegant Napa Merlot (there is 19% Cabernet Sauvignon) worthy of considerable consumer interest.

Bottled separately as a single-vineyard wine since 1971, the 2018 Cabernet Sauvignon Bosché Vineyard features a hint of mint upbfront, followed by mixed currants (red and black). There's a gentle herbal undercurrent to this blend of 93% Cabernet Sauvignon and 7% Merlot, which lends it an extra note of complexity. Full-bodied, suave and streamlined, this is rich and velvety without being overly broad or expansive, finishing long and elegant.

Caladan's 2019 Red Blend is 67% Merlot, 20% Cabernet Sauvignon and 12% Cabernet Franc, with the last 1% a combination of Malbec and Petit Verdot. More approachable and more hedonistic than the varietal Cab Franc, it's loaded with mouthwatering notes of ripe cherries and redcurrants on the nose, then delivers waves of full-bodied pleasure in the mouth, a richly textured mid-palate and a long and softly dusty finish.

A sumptuous wine that manages to hold its cards of spice and flamboyant fruits close to a chest of riches. Unirrigated blocks contribute. 50% of the cuve was crushed to open-tops, resplendent with 20% whole bunches; 20 days on skins, extended time on lees and élévage in both new and used puncheons, before a blending of the best to a foundre and concrete egg. This sits on a diplomatic cushion between the Rhône-inflected contemporary styles that splay pepper, clove and blue fruits about the mouth, and a richer, more lustrous regional note. The tannins etch the cheeks and wind down the side of the tongue, keeping to the path of righteousness. Fine indeed.

I like this. A wine that embraces a more medium-bodied, compact and restrained archetype, defined by spicy lithe grape tannins as much as McLaren Vale fruit. A southeast-facing site of ironstone. Green olive tapenade, clove, pepper grind and salumi mingle with succulent red cherry, mescal and blue fruit allusions. The tannins, a spindle of spicy, pithy chewiness, attenuated and polymerised by gentle agitation in the right oak (French foudres for 16 months). A strong regional statement. A benchmark, too, for those seeking savouriness over mere amplitude and ripeness. An exercise in fine tannin management.

An 85/11/4% varietal split and made into an early-drinking style that’s taking the Valley by storm. Giant Steps make an LDR – light dry red – but this has an altogether different take with its flavour profile. Super-bright and juicy fruit, a mix of dark plums and red berries, sarsaparilla with a light dusting of spice. The palate is actually quite refined, with svelte tannins and refreshing acidity. Given the style brief, this is pitch perfect. It’s hard to put it down. So I didn’t.

The warmest site of the 4 Giant Steps single-vineyard chardonnays, but planted on a south-facing slope in Tarrawarra. As with all of them, this was whole-bunch pressed and barrel fermented 15% new French puncheons). A fuller, bright, green gold. Quite restrained with aromas of stone fruits, oatmeal and a little wet rock. I like both the intensity and restraint on the palate and this may, paradoxically, need the longest of the 4 single-vineyard 2021 chardonnays to open up.

The 2011 Mt. Brave Cabernet Sauvignon is positively brilliant. Deep, dense and voluptuous, with no hard edges, the 2011 possesses terrific balance and tons of class. Black cherry, gravel, plum, spice, licorice, menthol and chocolate build in a Cabernet endowed with remarkable depth. There are no hard edges or awkward contours in this beauty from Mt. Brave and Chris Carpenter.

Lively, energetic expression with cranberry and pomegranate juice the main features, light, fine tannins lending shape and drawing the wine long, a touch of alpine herb and botanical savouriness in the mix. Elegant, refined and on cruise control. A wine of pedigree here.

Spicy, floral, raspberry, red cherry, a sweet clay-like earthiness, almond and flowering basil? Well, hello McLaren Vale Burgundy. Fresh raspberry, a little earthy and nutty, but succulent, and yet, all this firm brick dusty tannin pushing through, almost peppery in a way, a smattering of dried herb, some cranberry acidity on a long slightly warm finish, but gee energy is pulsating through this wine. It’s terrific.

Vivid red. Highly perfumed, spice-accented red/blue fruit preserve, incense and floral scents show excellent clarity and a smoky mineral topnote. Juicy, sharply focused and appealingly sweet, offering sappy raspberry, boysenberry, spicecake and candied rose flavors and a hint of cola. Closes impressively long and smooth, with well-knit tannins and resonating florality.

Tangy layers of tangerine and wet stone fill the glass in this fresh, focused and ultimately bright coastal white. Salty sea air lingers around strong, lush layers of richness and complex concentration, finishing in persistent acidity.

Mango, banana and pear meet a rich core of crème brûlée and oak spice in this deliciously complex and concentrated wine. It has lush, plush undertones of pillowy texture and a finishing touch of orange zest that help brighten and lengthen the finish.

12.5% alcohol. Clones: gingin, Mendoza, 777, 76, I10V1, P58, 96, 548. Vines planted 1988, 1997, 2001. Wild fermented with full solids in French oak puncheons, 15% new. 10% malolactic. Taut, linear and compressed with crisp citrus fruit and faint hints of pear and melon. There’s a very fine bready toastiness, and a bit of oak structure as well as keen acidity that helps everything stay fresh. Such precision here, with a sense of delicacy allied to good concentration of flavour. Another early-picked style that has good ageing potential.

Keeping the juice on skins in a large ceramic egg for 170 days provides extraordinary texture that defines a sinewy mid-palate and a sexy tang on the finish. The polished but vigorous tannins shape a strict palate framework defined by sharp graphite seams and high-toned cherry perfume, but sinewy muscle adds edgy tension.