Giant Steps Applejack Vineyard Pinot Noir 2023

Giant Steps Applejack Vineyard Pinot Noir 2023

The Applejack Vineyard at Gladysdale in the Yarra Valley is on an east facing slope on grey soils. There’s a 100 metre drop from the top of the vineyard to the bottom. There’s also significant clonal diversity in this vineyard. It was planted in 1997. This will be released on August 21, 2024. Blog post on Giant Steps’ new Bastard Hill vineyard.

I tasted this wine a few months ago and loved it from the first sip. I have it on the desk now and there it is again, aglimmer in the glass. This wine is no one’s fool. It’s a pure expression of its place in the world and that place happens to be complex. It’s a cool wine with straight trees of tannin, perfumed red and black berries, lines of spice and echoes of woodsmoke. It’s a forest of a wine, a bit lush, a bit wet, a bit woody; verdant. At all times, as you drink it, the fruit comes at you like a swell. When you swallow this wine it flares out like you’ve reached the lookout at the end of a long walk. It’s a good wine. And it’s more than that. 96 Points - Campbell Mattinson, The Wine Front